Halimeda Potter, Thinking of the Sea
by Roserayrose
Summary: When Halimeda Potter (Fem!Harry) was cast into the Veil of Death by the Ministry after the war, she knew that she'd be meeting up with her friend Death.But she didn't expect Death to send her into a baby's body with her family alive again. Only snag is that she's in a different universe where they're Superheros? Aliens? And the worst part is S.H.I.E.L.D has her on their radar.
1. Chapter 1, Into the Veil we go

**A/N Hi! I've adopted this from HellCat4Life with all permissions. You** _ **really**_ **should read this, even if you have read hers, since it clears up a lot of plot gaps and has been rewritten.**

 **DISCLAIMER: Fine, fine, you caught me, I don't own Harry Potter or the Marvel franchise.**

 **NOW LET'S BEGIN!**

 **Chapter One**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Waiting jail cells in the European Ministry of Magic. October 31** **st** **1998 10:12 AM – A few months after the Final Battle.**

Halimeda Potter-Black (If she was in better spirits, she'd have laughed at how noble that sounded) closed her eyes and sighed, brushing her mass of hair out of her face, revealing high cheekbones, and green almond-shaped eyes. This was it, the day she was going to be banished.

After the war was over, the news of the Horcrux in her mind got leaked to the newspapers, causing an uproar for stopping the next Voldemort. In a way, Hali recognized where their fears came from, yet she couldn't figure out how they decided that _this_ was a good idea.

Throwing her into the Veil of Death head after heels seemed…. extreme especially since the Horcrux had obliterated after Voldemort had killed her (How odd she could think that sentence without being, well, _dead_ ).

But, the Ministry had gotten extremely embarrassed that they'd fallen so quickly to Voldemort's rule, and felt guilty for not recognizing Voldemort as a threat quicker, resulting in the new agenda against _all_ dark magic. Hali – because if her parents expected her to call herself Halimeda they were quite oblivious – wasn't exactly sure how this was different from before, but the Ministry was steadfast in this new regime, so she couldn't really saw anything about it.

So many had died throughout the Horcrux Hunt, as she'd mentally dubbed it (though it ought to be called something much more ominous), which had gone horribly wrong. Tonks didn't ever have the chance to give birth, dying only months into the Ministry's takeover. Next came Remus, then George, then Mrs. Weasley, then brave Mcgonagall, followed by so many others….

But it had been Hermione, Ginny and Ron's deaths that had really sparked something burning within her. The others, the others made her depressed, filled her with grief. But with her two best friend's gone, and her beautiful, vibrant girlfriend struck down Hali made quick work of Voldemort, solely on an spirited quest to fulfill her friends' dying wish.

Which was… to be _happy_.

No matter what, she _would_ complete this goal – the quest to find love, to find joy and laughter. And she'd smile the entire way through.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X -

 **Courtroom Ten, the European Ministry of Magic. October 31** **st** **1988, 6:00 PM – Later that day.**

"Halimeda Jamie Potter-Black," The new Minister of Magic – a small unassuming man with light blue eyes – said. His squeaky voice, elderly-man-who-loves-puppies-but-is-also-afraid-of-them aura around him, and snow-white hair made it plain as day why he was elected.

The Minister looked down from his perch above the steep stair-like seats of the courtroom. It was coincidentally the same courtroom she was tried in for rescuing Dudley from Dementors, only this time she was actually shackled in the chair. Which, she might add, was very uncomfortable.

"You are guilty of murder," He squeaked. The crowd gasped, startled. "Dark magic, arson, theft, multiple accounts of treason, evading arrest," He squinted at the startlingly long and winding parchment, "breaking into a bar?" He asked the room at large.

Hali shuffled her feet awkwardly, stamping the urge to sheepishly rub her neck. She'd already been Undesireable No.1, and didn't think she had a good chance of living through the war…. So…. well….

"About that..." She began, "me and Hermione were _really_ tired, and _really_ needed to unwind…"

The room stared at her. Hali shrugged, putting an overly apologetic expression on her face.

The Minister coughed, concluding it'd be best to ignore her. "Breaking into the Ministry, breaking into the Ministry… breaking into the ministry again?" He looked up like he was searching for answers from some otherworldly spirit. "When was the third time?" He wondered.

Hali shrugged, but didn't answer. No one else did either.

"Do I have to list all the places she's broken into?" The Minister asked, eyes doing down the very long list.

The Minister's secretary shook her head. "No, Sir. You can skip."

Hali frowned, she was _pretty_ sure that was illegal, but who was she too judge?

"Ah, good. So, guilty of breaking and entering, _multiple_ accounts of that. Guilty of hiding You-Know-Who's soul inside of herself, and of keeping information that could have been valuable towards the defeat of You-Know-Who –"

"You, uh, you don't have to read that entire thing," Hali interrupted. Her head was itchy, and with her arms chained up she couldn't do anything about it.

The Minister, whose name Hali was a bit embarrassed to admit she'd forgot, huffed like a kicked puppy. "Be that way! You are hereby sentenced to death by the Veil of Death!" He sounded like the drama kids at Hogwarts, who really liked practicing in the corridors and barging into random classrooms.

Hali smiled while the room erupted into whispers of horror. Not everyone was without a conscience, it seemed. The girl-who-lived had a sneaking idea the public wouldn't let the ministry get away with killing their savior.

She almost wished she could stick around, maybe find a good seat and munch on popcorn as she surveyed the chaos. But it wasn't to be – she was due to a meeting with Death in a bit. She only hoped the Veil of Death wasn't painful. From what Hel (Death) had told Hali, it was rather anticlimactic. You go in, and you die. Easy. Now, of course you can't just kill the Mistress of Death. Hel wouldn't like that at all, she'd have to go through the trouble of finding a new mistress.

Besides, she and Hel were becoming fast friends. Or so Hali felt. Their relationship had certainly improved since their first meeting, a meeting that was mostly Hali alternating between freaking out, and screaming at Hel to bring back the people she loved.

But they were past such…. _small_ differences now.

The Minister-Who-Hali-Really-Should-Know-The-Name-Of waggled his hands towards five burly Aurors guarding the various exits, who approached Hali even as people in the audience looked ready to bust Hali about of there. Indeed, some were standing up – running towards the minister. They were outraged he was declaring her death without taking vote, and that he dared turn what they'd thought was going to be… well honestly Hali didn't know what the minister had called this hearing – but they clearly were out of the loop.

"Take her away!" The Minister yelled, even as Aurors shepherded him away from the furious crowd.

"Oh!" Hali announced brightly, an idea forming, "Before I forget!" She yelled, voice resounding throughout the chamber. "Remember these words, ' _It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends_.'" Hali quoted as loudly as she could, inwardly pleased that she'd at least gotten some awesome last words in. Hermione would be proud. Ginny, too. Ron would've encouraged her to say something silly, so that'd be what was recorded in history books. Still, he'd get a kick out Dumbledore's quote being reused.

Only a second after she'd gotten in her last words (Of this world, at least), a stunning spell hit her in the back. Her teenage body slumped down in her shackled chair, the shackles of which were slowly snaking away from her.

Then, her motionless body was lifted up – and although Hali had no idea what was happening as of right now and never would – the team of gruff and manly looking Aurors were having difficulties finding the best way to pick her up.

"You get her leg!"

"Why is she so heavy?"

"Umm…. Is her leg supposed to be at that angle?"

"No you idiot! NO – DON'T DROP HER!"

"USE MAGIC YOU IDIOTS!"

"Oh."

And, after figuring out their difficulties, they trooped out of the court rooms, the door locking behind them, stopping the court from chasing after them. The door wouldn't last very long, even with all the enchantments. Mad wizards were a force to be reckoned with. The Aurors made their way towards the Department of Mysteries, which luckily was right next to Courtroom Ten.

They weren't allowed inside the mysterious Department of Mysteries, so they had to stop right outside the plain-looking door. They could only pass the unconscious teen to the Unspeakables waiting there, whose faces were veiled by hooded cloaks and magical shadows.

With no effort at all (Making the Aurors feel rather stupid), the Unspeakable's levitated her up, glaring and shooing the Aurors away from the door in a clear sign of 'you're not welcome here'.

The Unspeakable's then expertly navigated through the complicated room schematics, unlocking hidden passages to better get to the Death Room quicker. Then, once reaching the Veil of Death, they unceremoniously floated her into the veil without fanfare, and went back to their jobs. Having no idea that, while they bemoaned the teens who'd broken all their time turners (Like they constantly did), Hali was meeting up with a very special deity.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X -

 **Hel's Realm, Hel's Office. Year unknown. Date unknown. Time unknown – Because Hel's clock is broken (** _ **Again**_ **).**

"Hello again, Mistress," Greeted Hel to the peaceful body that lay on her carpet. Hel – or Death – wasn't _really_ a skeleton in a cloak with a scythe, as most people would think. Hel instead takes whatever form she wants too. An expert shapeshifter. Occasionally she would cosplay as the cliché death, other times shapeshifting into various weird bodies.

Right now, Hel took the form a young girl (her preferred form) a cloak like liquid darkness covering blood red hair of such a color that Hali was jealous (Her own black hair had nothing on it). Her face was half bone, and half pale ivory flesh. Why, the entire left side of her was fleshless bones, giving her a dangerously skinny look.

Hali's lashes flutter open, to reveal killing curse green eyes. "Hello Hel! Staying alive, I hope?" Hali said with a mischievous smile, looking around the room with interest. She was in Hel's personal room; most people (Or so Hel explained to her) would just see a black void, and their souls would naturally seek out the light that led them to their next great adventure ('Kind of like moths keeps bumping into lightbulbs!' Hel had said brightly).

The office was cozy, and very gothic, rather fitting towards Death. The wooden panels on the walls had intricate carvings of roses on them, and the throne-like chair that Hel sat at looked surprisingly plush and cozy.

"Your jokes always kill me, Hali." Hel deadpanned, though an amused smirk played on her face – or at least the flesh side of her face. Hali clambered off the dark brown carpet and plopped herself in a chair on the other side of Hel's dark wooden desk.

"I live for these puns," Hali said, fighting down a laugh bubbling inside.

"I don't," Hel said blandly, and Hali snorted.

"Right, give me the gist of things! What's going to happen now?" Hali asked Hel with a small amount of worry, not worry for her life – but worry that Hel would do something to mess with her.

Hali wasn't afraid of Hel, because when Hel had first visited Hali to explain her new position as a Mistress of Dead, she'd told Hali how to summon the deity to her ('And don't you dare overuse the summoning, Hali!' Hel had said).

So, naturally she'd overused the summoning to call Hel to her whenever she was bored, having fun, wanted to tell her something, wanted to complain, or just about anything. With the option to either become friends or murder each other (Not that death would do much), they became friends.

"Since there's nothing left for you in this universe," Hel started, and Hali winced, "you will be sent to the alternate universe that my Father and Uncle live in. The Midgard – or Earth as you call it – over there is much more advanced in technology. Not to forget I'm going to do a bit of meddling too, so a large majority of the wizards and witches will be moved notch up in time. I can cash in a favor to Time – get him to help." Hel smirked, but didn't comment on Hel's awestruck look. "At this other Earth, you will be… _interested_ to learn that they have some very, err… 'special' individuals. You'll end up meeting them, it's kinda unavoidable, what with you being so obvious, and such a horrible liar." Hel waved away Hali's protests at that, "You are," she said firmly, "deal with it.

"As I was saying, SHIELD is pesky, superheroes are cool, evil villains are annoying, and… I think that's it!" Ignoring Hali's exclamations of surprise with the ease of someone used to this, Hel kept on talking, "Good luck, Hali! And _please_ do not contact me until…" she seemed to rethink what she was about to say, "Until you're in private, at the very least." Hel finished, knowing it was a lost cause for her to get Hali to stop summoning her. "There, I did my job!" Hel said, lifting her palms from where they had been clasped, and pushing off from the desk. Surprisingly, her throne had wheels, like an office chair would, and she glided back with a creepy half-bone grin.

"I've been meaning to ask," Hali hurriedly asked, knowing she wouldn't get to ask this later, a thoughtful look on her features, "Do you like your job? As Death, I mean?"

Hel smirked, "It does make a _living_ "

Hali paused, blinking rapidly, "Oh for the love of _Merlin_ you did not just –" But, whatever Hali had been set to say was interrupted by Hel snapping her fingers, and, in a split second, Hali went from her own universe and into the next.

With Hali gone, Hel giggled, and looked over to the wall in front of her, where a water-like mirror rested, surrounded by elaborately done wood designs. It was now glowing as if lit with the glow of dozens of fireflies, and Hel hopped from her high throne chair, walking over to the wall, still grinning.

She peered into the mirror, and started laughing with a more than a little evilness.

For the mirror now showed a live video of a man and woman, the woman with red hair cradled a newborn child, swaddled in a pink blanket. The baby girl in her hands glared up to heavens, and shook a small pudgy fist, as though angry at an invisible entity watching…

Hel shrugged, "She'll get over it. After all, it's just a little fun, besides, now she's got her family back!" Hel remarked to her empty office, and she laughed again, a disturbingly lopsided grin on her face. "Besides, she makes an adorable baby!"

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godrics Hollow, Potter House, Nursery, August 4** **th** **, 2004, 9:18 PM – Four days after Hali's birth.**

During the first days of Hali's arrival into this new universe, she had spent most of that time inventing several cruel and unusual punishments for Hel in her mind. Such as: forcing Hel to do paperwork, making _her_ a baby, and summoning her so often that Hel wouldn't be able to shower without fear of appearing unprepared.

Hali was stuck as a baby, and she despised it. After all, it was very embarrassing to have to relieve herself in a _diaper_ , not to mention how awkward she was whenever Lily wanted to _breastfeed_ her (Oh the shame!).

Although Hel had given Hali her family back, it didn't mean she was any less irritated at her. Before she could work herself into anger, the thought of her family calmed her. Whenever she thought about her parents and her godfather, it did wonders of any negative emotions she was feeling. Hali still had the same parents, James and Lily Potter, and the same godfather – Sirius Black.

Also, in this universe, she was much closer to Remus Lupin. Who, sadly, in her own world, was more of the cool-professor than anything to her. But now, Hali had hopes that she would come to see him as an Uncle in time.

There was Peter Pettigrew as well, but she stoutly ignored him as a family member.

Peter wasn't evil here, as, in this world Voldemort had apparently been an awful dark lord. This Voldemort had gotten in the news mainly for getting _Witch Weekly's Worst Dark Lord Award_. And, _Your Daily Dose of Doom's_ (A popular magazine for Dark Wizards) _Shortest Siege of a Dark Lord Medal_ , beating Lord Carbilox, who'd only lasted a week before he was caught.

Peter Pettigrew 'somehow' often got in odd situations where he was humiliated, hurt, or in some way left bewildered when left alone with baby Hali (She would blame the cat and stick with that story).

Hali recalled meeting her grandparents on her father's side after she was born, that was more family that in her own world she'd never thought she'd meet.

Hali gave a toothless smile, making Lily – who was singing a lullaby – to beam at her daughter.

"If anyone touches a hair on your head," Lily said brightly, but quietly, "they'll be dead before they hit the ground!" Lily said, still in the awfully cheerful tone, cooing at Hali – who had frozen rather incredulously.

Hali stared at Lily, and Lily picked up Hali, cuddling the baby like nothing happened.

Hali blinked, a little unsure, and a little worried, before deciding that she should just pretend that nothing had happened. After all, it would be better for everyone that way.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godrics Hollow, Potter House, Living Room, August 9** **th** **, 2004, 5:03 PM – A week after Hali's birth.**

Hali had a babysitter.

Or more like she had _two_ babysitters, her godfather, and Remus. They'd both went over to her house (Where they practically lived anyway) to look after Hali, since Lily and James's were out for a date night.

Well, it was more like Sirius was babysitting Hali, and Remus was babysitting the both of them.

Peter wasn't helping out, because he'd taken a nonlethal tumble down the stairs, and was staying away for now ( _This time_ she actually didn't have anything to do with it, to her surprise).

Remus and Hali were watching Sirius running around the room like a headless chicken. Remus was snickering and fighting a grin, and Hali merely cocked her head to the side like she was watching a fascinating science experiment gone wrong.

"Why would you do this?" Sirius cried hysterically, running his hands through his hair and staring in horror at the sticky glue that now coated his fingers.

Only seconds after this action, he vanished through the archway into the kitchen. His disappearance was shortly followed by a faucet turning on, and the sound of water splashing.

Remus picked up baby Hali – who really wished she could walk on her own – and went after Sirius, making sure he didn't do anything stupid. Once he walked into the kitchen, he broke into laughter at the sight that greeted him.

Just like every time someone in her family acted so joyful, Hali felt a bubble of protective love surge upwards. She was determined that _this_ time everyone would keep that innocent happiness – instead of dying at young ages filled with sorrow and regret from their hardships.

Hali wiggled her small body around (She was going to get revenge on Hel, once she looked more dignified, and preferably was able to walk and talk again), to look at what Sirius had done.

She cocked her head to the side to try and make sense of what she was seeing, her little child eyes staring in bemusement. Then, she snickered – _not giggled, there's a difference!_ –once she thought she knew what was happening.

Sirius was perched on the kitchen counter next to the sink, his black-haired head going under the faucet, before taking it back out, repeating this again and again. And each time he lifted his head he hit his head on the faucet with a dull thud.

Not to forget that he was making bizarre mewling noises, odd for someone with a dog Animagus, but it merely made the entire prank even more amusing.

"What –" Remus began, but burst into more laughter before he could complete the sentence, his chest folding in on himself.

As Remus squished Hali to his torso as a result from his laughter, Hali _tried_ to say; "Get your chest out of my small innocent face!" but she had no teeth, and wasn't able to say anything yet. Remus quickly straightened, seeming to get the gist of what she was trying to say through her distressed and angry gurgles.

From her spot against his chest Hali could still feel his chest heaving in amusement, shaking with silent bursts of laughter. From Sirius's perch on the sink, he twisted around as if to find out what was so funny, and promptly spun around with too much force that he toppled off the sink.

From his spot on the floor he swore loudly, and Hali snickered at the _very_ creative words he used.

"Sirius! There's a baby!" Remus chastised, aghast, although Hali would've thought Remus would be used to this by now.

"She's too tiny to understand!" Sirius excused immediately, and Hali giggled, she knew _exactly_ what he'd said, and would love to 'innocently' ask him what some of those words meant. Purely to see the horror on his face, if only she _could just get her stupid mouth to speak!_

The family's very fat cat waddled in the other room, saw Sirius, froze, giving him a look that could only be described of confused, and backed away slowly. Making Hali (The only one to notice), to start giggling manically. Or, it would have been maniacal in her other body, but sadly she was a baby.

A _cute_ baby with big almond shaped green eyes, thick lashes, pale white skin, and tufts of wavy black hair that wiggled when she moved.

"Awwww! She is so adorable! Who's adorable, you are! You are!" Sirius said in such a ridiculous babying voice you'd think he was talking to a dog. He clambered to his feet, and promptly slipped on the puddle he'd made.

Remus gave Sirius an amused, yet irritated look, "She's not a dog, Sirius! She's a baby, remember that you great mutt."

Said baby in question stuck her tongue out, the only thing she could do to express her irritation properly and in the most mature manner she could do as a baby.

They both cooed at her again and Hali huffed in irritation, she would get her revenge, and she waved a fist in her air to further demonstrate that.

The grown men cooed _yet again_ , and despite all of this madness, Hali couldn't help but think that everything would turn out just fine. She was already on her way to fulfilling Ron and Hermione's wish.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **A/N The last two bits were just some fluffy moment from her new life, just to get the idea of her being reborn cemented, and to give an insight on her emotions.**

 **Don't worry, this won't be an entire fic full of fluff scenes. Because I love having good ol' drama and actions scenes, so more of that later.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did please leave reviews with constructive criticism, because I love that! :D**

 **I'll most likely update in two days, (Tuseday) but maybe tomorrow (Monday) if I find the time.**

 **THANKS FOR READING!**

 _ **EDIT: 8/12/2016, not-very-minor grammar fixes, and the entire chapter was rewritten, some parts removed, others added, etc.**_

 _ **EDIT: 2/16/17, added a better motivation towards perusing happiness, and fixed grammatical errors.**_


	2. Chapter 2, Summoning Hel

**A/N WOW! Thank you so very much for all the follows and favorites! I did do a lot of research for this, like re-watching the Marvel movies (Such a difficult life I live! Being forced to watch movies, oh woe is me!).**

 **There will be some mentions of what our favorite superheroes are doing in this chapter, but they won't come up** _ **properly**_ **until chapter 3. This is still worth reading, else you'll be a bit confused later on.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I own everything! (Grabs laptop and dashes away) …. …. … (Long silence), NEVERMIND (Muffled yell from far away), I DON'T! Gotta dash from a mad J.K Rowling and a lot of CEO's! (Distant yell) I OWN NOTHING! (Trails off…)**

 **Chapter Two**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godrics Hollow, Potter House, Living room. 2004, December 29** **th** **11:34 AM – Hali's a few months old.**

Inside the Potter House, there was absolute silence – something that was odd to come by, what with the rowdy people living there. But, there was a reason the occupants of the Potter House waited with baited breath. And that was getting their daughter, Hali, to say her first words.

Hali poked a tongue out at her parents, to her amusement, James and Lily were competing to try and get her to say respectively, 'Daddy', and 'Mommy'.

"Say mommy, Pumpkin!" Lily said pleadingly, and Hali was slightly awed at Lily's big, green, puppy-dog eyes. Really, Hali should make use of her own eyes, if they could do half the damage Lily's could, "I know you can do it, say it like this – _mommy_." Lily pronounced painstakingly slowly, a large smile making dimples on her lightly freckled face.

The group was situated in the cozy living room, a few brown and red plump couches took up most of the space. A thick maroon rug coated the dark red wooden floor, and a large Christmas tree was placed in a nearby corner, it's ornaments reflecting the fire that came from a brick fireplace, which was sending flickering patterns across the room.

Outside the window's, and visible through the partially open red and brown curtains (Can you guess the color scheme?), snow fell strongly, covering all it landed on.

Sirius, Peter, and Remus sat on the couch beside Lily and James's loveseat – or, Remus and Peter were sitting, and Sirius was perched on the arm of the couch. Even though Remus complained they had plentyof space on the couch left.

Hali, meanwhile, was caught in indecision; she didn't know _which_ parent-name to say. Whoever's she picked, she'd make the other irritated – and she really didn't want to be the cause of a feud between her two parents. The problem was, Hali had never been a part of a family – a loving one – meaning she was constantly surprised at how forgiving they were to each other.

The Weasleys (while she loved them dearly), were not a good demonstration, since Hali couldn't tell if the Weasley's were how all family's acted. This made her worry about messing something up, a silly notion she couldn't seem to get out of her head.

"Maaaaa –" Hali began, and Lily beamed in encouragement, but Hali looked the crestfallen James (Who was only being melodramatic – but Hali didn't realize), and her face scrunched up in frustrated way. How was she to make them both happy?

There was a lengthy pause as Hali figured out exactly how to make everything okay, she'd simply go in a middle ground. But what was a middle ground in-between mum and dad? Sadly, she hadn't the faintest idea.

"Daaaa" Hali stalled, and James grinned brightly, but now Lily was scowling at James, "Mmmmma – Mma – Mad manatee's!" Hali blurted out the first thing she could think of, and that's what it just so happened to be.

Dead silence followed her proclamation, and everyone traded confused looks.

"Weird kid." Sirius said finally, causing Remus to swat him on the shoulder with a glare.

James shrugged, "Peter?" he offered hesitantly.

Lily nodded, "That does seem like something he'd do…"

Peter frowned, forehead creasing into a worried look, "But… I didn't!" He protested.

Remus patted him on the back, "We're not mad."

"But –" Peter tried, but ended up just sighing and shaking his head, knowing a lost cause when he saw one.

Lily smiled encouragingly, "That's right, Peter. You really ought to come clean."

Peter gave another helpless sigh, "Fine…" He said rather sullenly, although his lips twitched in amusement.

There was another length of silence as Hali stared at everyone with wide eyes. Were they not happy with her first word? Would they give her away, now that she'd disappointed them? No… no they wouldn't… – Right?

Hali shook her head to her own thoughts, the Dursley's behavior was just getting to her, but she still couldn't get rid of the nagging worry.

Then Lily smiled, standing up abruptly, "I'm going to tell Alice all about Hali's first words! Neville hasn't said his yet, oh... _how exciting_!" She practically squealed, before dashing off, still in her fluffy slippers.

In record time, she slid across the freshly-polished wooden floor – once she was off the rug – and came to a halt in front of the fireplace. Lily snatched from Floo powder from a painted pot, and tossed it into the fire.

"Longbottom's Cabin!" She cried out, and in front of her rather entertained family and friends, she was whisked off to the Longbottom's house.

Hali gave a small start, as she always did with people mentioning Alice and Frank Longbottom so casually. Back in her world it had always been such a taboo subject to bring up, as it upset Neville.

Curiously, she wondered if the Neville of this world would be anything like the Neville of her own world. Probably not, a different family had very different effects on a child, as Hali had observed from years at Hogwarts.

Hali blinked out of her thoughts when James lifted her up, plonking her onto his lap and bouncing her slightly.

"Manatee!" Hali declared, giving a baby eye roll to everyone. As though saying 'it's just a word', even though her heart rate relaxed and she slumped down – not even aware of the tension she'd had.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godrics Hollow, Potter House, The Hallway. 2007, July 31** **st** **9:10 AM – Hali's third birthday.**

"Happy birthday Hali!" Sirius said, popping up so suddenly that Hali nearly called the Elder Wand to her.

"Your three years old today? How about that!" Sirius said in faux wonderment, "You haven't even had your first prank yet!" He paused, looking around as though frightened Lily would turn up the moment he tried to speak, and Hali quirked a jet-black eyebrow. "But don't worry… we can do it together"

"Sirius, stop corrupting my daughter!" Lily's voice rang from downstairs, where she was no doubt cooking a special breakfast meal. Thank goodness that Hali was able to eat proper food, breastfeeding was one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. Mostly because she was very self-conscious of just what she was sucking on… with a small shudder Hali inwardly declared she'd rather face Voldemort than do _that_ again.

"How'd you kno –" Sirius then quickly backtracked, "I mean… why would you think that?" Sirius yelled back, fumbling around with his words, and looking at Hali with pleading puppy-dog eyes. "Don't tell her, don't tattle. Please don't!" Sirius pleaded, dropping to his knees onto the upstairs hallway carpet in a very dramatic fashion, then putting his hands together as though praying.

Hali raised her eyebrows at him, and stuck her hands on her hips – trying to look as tall as possible. It didn't work, judging by the way Sirius's faux desperate look faltered and he bit his lip to keep from laughing.

"Only if you let the cat into Peter's room."

Sirius shook his head gravely (ignoring Lily's reply of "You always are corrupting everyone you meet! Besides, I can you hear you, your right above the kitchen!").

"No deal." Sirius said, they hadn't told Hali _officially_ about them being Animagus's, and Hali 'innocently' thought that Peter was frightened of cats and (Like a good child) she wanted to help him get over his fear – and she would forever stick with that story.

In all actuality Hali wasn't as against Peter as she had been, she'd figured that this was a new life and he didn't actually betray them here. So, it was more of a tradition (Even that excuse sounded bad in her head) where she'd frighten him with some tricks with the always present Elder Wand.

Well, it wasn't always present in physical form, but she could feel its existence in the corner of her mind and could – with just a thought – bring it and the other Deathly Hallows to her. So at any time she needed one of them, they would come. Making her the _MISTRESS OF HIDE AND SEEK!_

Invisibility cloaks are _not_ cheating, simply using the things she owned to her advantage….

Ok, fine, it _was_ cheating, but, she did love to watch Sirius and James running around the house in confusion – trying to figure out how she always hid so well.

James took this moment to walk upstairs, probably paranoid that Sirius might being trying to teach Hali how to fly a broom again (James was more annoyed because he wanted to be the one to teach her, and not because it was dangerous).

Her father took one look at their position – Sirius on his knees and begging, and Hali with her little body held up imperiously like some overlord with her hands on her hips – and snorted. "Do I even want to ask?" He asked dryly, trying to stay looking serious and failing, laughing loudly he ran over to Hali and picked her up, swooping her around in the air, the wizard's version of 'airplane' (called 'broomstick').

"We've got grilled onions, and some eggs and toast ready to go in your belly!" and James poked her on the stomach, Hali wiggled and gave a small laugh (not a giggle!).

"Ok then!" Hali chirped, allowing herself to be carried down the staircase, something they didn't trust her with after she had tripped over Stephen, the fat family cat and fell down. Because she was still paranoid, she had called the Elder Wand to her midair – sending an overpowered cushioning charm to the stairs in a heartbeat. Hali was just lucky that she'd vanished the wand before anyone noticed it clutched in her hands, else she would have some _very_ hard questions to answer too.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godric's Hollow, Potter House. In the** _ **Nursery**_ **. 2010, February 24** **th** **, 5:00 PM – Age five.**

Hali was on her bedroom floor ( _Not_ a nursery), sitting cross legged, her eyes glowing a blinding green, her invisibility cloak flapping around her shoulders in an unseen wind. The now five-year-old looked to all the world like she was about to do some insane dark ritual. The smeared blood-red marks on the floor, forming the shape of a pentagon added to that affect. Hali cleared her throat, eyes flashing as she chanted.

"Mary had a little devil…" She sung in a low voice, and the wind grew stronger, "little devil… little devil… its eyes were red as blood…" She took a deep breath and sung louder, things were starting to rattle – a vase on her dresser nearly overturned "And everywhere that Mary went… the devil was sure to be there…. _Watching_ "

The black – nearly purplish – stone embedded on a lace black choker glowed (The Resurrection Stone could turn itself into any garment she wished), flashing a brilliant black.

Hali's red dress fluttered around her in a supernatural manner, and her eyes shone a bone chilling killing curse green.

In front of the small, but dangerous looking girl, Hel appeared before Hali with the swoop of a black cloak that seemed almost withered.

Smoke poured out of the walls, and the shadows seemed to be closing in on them. The child-friendly torch brackets on the wall were doused in invisible water, going out with a foreboding sizzle. The room was cast into near darkness, other than the small melting candles that flickered unsteadily in a circle around Hali.

Hel looked around and an odd look crossed her face, who knew what this look could mean. This was Death after all, a _mere_ odd look could mean the death of humanity as it's known, it could mean she had just whipped out an entire population, for Hel was evil and –

"Really?" Hel said incredulously – disturbing Hali's dramatic mental monologue – motioning towards Hali's setup, red-stained floor and all.

"What?" Hali whined, scowling, "I took ages to set this all up!"

"You only needed to sing the rhyme!" Hel said, shaking her head as though she couldn't believe this behavior.

"But this is so much more fun!" Hali protested, a pout crossing her lips, "Your way is less cool, I prefer my version!" Hali paused for a moment, "And _you're the_ one who gave me the rhyme to summon you. Over the top, in my opinion – I could hardly keep a straight face."

Hel groaned into her hand, giving an eye roll that Hali couldn't see, "I only changed what you had to say because _someone_ " Here, she looked pointedly at the still pouting Hali, "Kept accidentally summoning me."

"That was your fault for choosing something I say often."

"Why would I _ever_ think you'd say 'Bring death to me' so much!" Hel said exasperatedly, but contrary to her irate look she looked to be fighting back laughter.

Hali opened her mouth and closed it, and then opened it again. Before at last giving Hel an irritated look for being so _damn_ logical.

"You should know that wizards are weird! I mean it was an activation word for a Portkey, it's also a spell I was practicing on – but there was no harm done in the end!"

"Those Muggles were traumatized when I appeared!" Hel said, her eyebrows raised imperiously.

"They don't remember you, so it doesn't matter..." Hali said with an embarrassed shrug, rubbing her neck sheepishly.

"Well _fine_." She said, and looked around approvingly at the cloth objects that rippled and danced in an invisible wind. "I do want to know the spell for the wind you used is, and how to do it."

"Oh yeah…" Hali said with a blush as she stood up and pointed her Elder Wand at the dark green curtains in her room. "It's a spell used for making the curtains flutter. Made by some decorating obsessed witch."

" _Volitant velum_!" Hali said, saying the words out loud for Hel's benefit, and the curtains began to ripple, the fabric tossed around, "Overcharge it for stronger winds, it's really easy! I got the idea from Professor Snape who used it – along with a spell that lifts the sheets off a bed for cleaning – to get his dramatic swoop."

Hel nodded approvingly, "Nice idea; I like it." Hel then pointed her bony, skeletal hand to her cloak, and the edges that dragged across the floor were picked off the floor, and Hali noted her adaption of the spell was very specific, the cloak only lifting enough to give someone the sense that Hel was floating.

"We've got to get a cooler backstory for where the charm came from, though." Hel pondered, absently flicking her hand at the candles that Hali had conjured and vanishing them.

"A Dark Lord that tried to kill Merlin invented it?" Hali suggested, pointing her wand towards the red smeared pentagon on the floor and vanishing the blood (Read: ketchup).

"Good idea, but why did he invent it?" Hel countered.

"It was created in a blast of angry uncontrolled magic…" Hali trailed off, motioning towards Hel to come up with a reason, Hel looked back at Hali from where she was examining the excessive amount of shadows that darkened the room with approval.

"Ah, right! He was mad because Merlin had defeated his entire force of men, and in his anger he caused everything in the room to shudder like cloth in high winds." Hel said, deep in thought, "So he decided to create a spell version of it to – to do what though? If he wanted to make himself look cool, the story is funny and _not_ epic!" Hel complained, dispelling the shadows, and with a twitch of her fingers made flames reappear on the torch brackets, relighting the room.

Hali beamed, inspiration hitting her on the face like a slap, "I got it! He wanted to make the spell so he could use it in his master plan to defeat Merlin, it was to try and intimidate, and hopefully scare off King Arthur! "

"But it didn't work, and thus the spell was passed down like a game of telephone!"

"Don't use those exact words, Hel, loses effect." Hali said with a wrinkled nose.

"Your right… The spell was passed down like a murmur tossed into a stream, slowly and slowly being torn by the rapids until it was forgotten. Everyone expect a few, like you and me…"

"And Snape?" Hali asked curiously.

"Nah, he used a curtain fluttering spell. _Completely_ different, and we stick to that story, Got it?"

"Completely different spell." Echoed Hali with a serious nod. "I like it!" Hali was indeed impressed, now she could have an amazing backstory for how she found the spell (Instead of finding it when she was decorating her room).

"So why'd you summon me to Earth?" Hel asked.

"Oh…" Hali looked embarrassed, she had forgotten about that, "Well I was going to be all angry because you turned me into a baby…. But it's been a few years so… um… your forgiven. I just don't hold a grudge very well" Hali flushed slightly, that was a lie (Cough, Peter, cough) but she did feel sincerely bad about pulling Hel away from her probably very important work.

"Did I distract you from what you were doing?" Hali asked apologetically.

"Oh _no_ , no you didn't. I was just bored in my office. Actually was trying to learn how to juggle at the time! It's really hard though, souls aren't made for juggling." Hel rolled her eyes as if this was a common problem.

Hali laughed, but her laughter quickly died away at Hel's next sentence.

"How many years has it been?" Hel stopped a moment to examine Hali, "Three? You look three." Hel had a bad sense of time for the most part, unless she actively tried to remember, came from immortality, she had complained to Hali before.

"I'm five!" Hali said, staring down at herself in horror, "Do I really look that small?!"

"Yup." Said Hel, being the heartless person she was, she didn't even _try_ to look sympathetic, "In fact…" Hel said with a smirk, "I look older than you!" Hel was indeed in the form of a nine-year-old, and much to Hali's distain she was bigger than the small Hali.

"Guess you're doomed to be a scrawny kid forever!" Hel said gleefully, hopping out of Hali's swat, and they chased each around the room, Hel taking refuge on top of Hali's dresser.

"Can't get me!" Hel smirked, and the smaller Hali _couldn't_ , or, she couldn't without magic. Unfortunately for Hel, Hali had magic, lots, and lots of magic.

Slowly and obviously, Hali summoned the Elder Wand to her, waving it tantalizingly in front of Hali.

"Cheating!" Cried Hel.

"You made fun of my height, I have no mercy."

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

After that, Hali wasn't entirely sure what happened – although she knew that both herself and Hel acted _very_ immature, and that somewhere along the way they dueled each other in a sword fight.

With actual, very deadly swords (It was a very dangerous game).

It was an hour or so after Hel first came, that the two panting and tired fake children brought the topic to the new world that they were in. Or, new for Hali, she didn't know if Hel had been here before, but she suspected as much.

"So, Hel, what were you talking about when you mentioned… furious… no… furry people?" Hali asked, trying to remember the details of the conversation, "Was it something like that? And… something about swords? Really important sounding swords that I think is an organization? You said it right before you sent me into a _baby's body_." The last bit was said with some exasperation.

Hel frowned in befuddlement, but then a look of dawning understanding came over her, "I was talking about S.H.I.E.L.D, known as SHIELD; it's secret spy organization type-thing that deals with threats of the more supernatural type, more often than not."

"And the workers there are really furious?"

"No, Nicolas _Fury_ is the Director of SHIELD; he'll probably find out about your… abilities, considering your completely _clueless_ about security cameras, and general tech."

"What's a security camera?" Hali queried, and Hel smirked mysteriously.

"Nothing!" Hel said in a singsong voice, saying it in such a way it obvious it _was_ something.

Hali felt that she'd heard about security cameras before, they were some type of device set up in Muggle stores to catch thieves, if she remembered correctly. Shrugging it off as unimportant (She wasn't a thief, after all) Hali focused entirely on what Hel was saying.

"I doubt you'd be upset if – more like when – he finds you, you'd probably love to work at a place like SHIELD." Hel was still smirking, with an 'I-know-something-you-don't' look on her face.

"Why would I want someone that'd likely want to dissect me?! Besides, I'd prefer to work with animals or something, I do like exotic pets."

"Oh trust me, you'd enjoy getting a job at SHIELD more than working at a…" Hel made a face, " _Pet store_. And besides, he won't dissect you, and can't even if he tried. Your magic would get… angry, and I would get angry, and in the end you'd just pop right back up right as rain a few seconds after you died, so it wouldn't matter." Hel had that infuriating smirk on her face.

Hali thought about it, did she want to ditch the quiet life she had planned and work at a spy agency, where there was sure to be trouble? But then Hali thought about how much _fun_ it had been to break into the Ministry, and, as a spy, she'd be basically being _payed_ to break laws, allowed to go and do things most people couldn't get away with.

Who was she kidding? She loved some action and danger in her life, it made for the best friendships, and the best type of terrifying fun. Now that she didn't have to worry about dying, it would be even better.

But there was a very important question to be dealt with first.

"Can I still have a pet sugar glider?" Hali asked seriously.

"Yes…." Hel sighed in resignation

"We have a deal." Hali said, literally making a deal with Death and enjoying how absolutely ridiculous her life was at this point.

"Ugh… I can't believe I agreed to this, what type did you want?"

"Doesn't matter, but they've got to be two months old or they won't bond properly." Hali said promptly.

"Where'd you even learn about this?!"

"Um…." Hali said awkwardly, "I was bored…?"

"You're weird"

"You juggle souls in your free time! I'm not the weird one here!" Hali defended, purposefully avoiding the question of where she'd gotten her information from.

Hel just rolled her eyes, but was unable to deny that juggling souls was not a normal pass time and thus just huffed with an annoyed look on her face.

As Hel opened her mouth again, Hali heard the door downstairs click open, and voices floated up the stairs.

"Hali, we're back!" James yelled, before engaging into a very loud conversation with Remus about how Remus should be a dragon breeder 'because it's cool' that Hali could hear from her bedroom.

Hali swore softly, "Shoo, get out of here Hel!"

"Bye!" Whispered Hel, and getting a running start, she jumped straight out the open window; Hali knew she was gone before she hit the ground and wasn't worried.

Hearing light footsteps coming up the stairs, Hali practically flew onto her bed and tried to look innocent, feeling relieved that Hel and herself had removed the special effects Hali had been using.

The footsteps were getting closer, now in the hallway. Hali gave a quick look around the room to make sure everything was looking normal. At the last second, she remembered her Resurrection Stone was still on her neck, and with a frantic thought, it too vanished.

The door creaked open and a head popped inside, "There you are, Hali!" Lily said brightly, seeing Hali whistling and looking transfixed by her shoes, her feet hanging off her bed. "Let's go make dinner, shall we?" Lily said, a beaming smile on her face.

She looked around Hali's green and grayish-blue color schemed room (The green was something that made James and Sirius rather annoyed, because it was only for 'slimy snakes', but Hali convinced them easily enough), probably wondering if Hali had cleaned her room like she'd been instructed.

"Sure, mum." Hali said nervously, smiling very suspiciously. She seemed to be in the clear… No one would no she'd ever summoned Hel. Right?

"Where'd all the ketchup go?" Sirius's confused voice yelled from the kitchen, and Hali gave a nervous laugh.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, Leaky Cauldron. 2010, August 1** **st** **, 2:26 PM – Hali's six years old by now.**

Hali (Who'd recently turned six just a day before) had just left the Leaky Cauldron, having finished having a nice outing at Diagon Alley with her parents and parent's friends… and also Peter (No, Peter _still_ didn't count).

Hali bounced down the street ahead of her family and Uncles, Lily wanted to expose Hali to the Muggle world and so everyone was going to go shopping for Muggle clothes. Something she'd never done, as she'd only been left with Dudley's castaways, never brought along to the shops.

Hali paused in her skipping, turning to beam at her family, who were all dressed in the Muggle 21st century fashion. It was still odd, being in the future, yet at the same time being younger than before. Even Hali was wearing Muggle clothing, she had something called jeggings as her pants, a red and green knitted sweater (Something that she was used too), and a plaid black skirt that Lily had chosen for her.

"Where do we go first?" Hali chirped, glancing around. Hali was in a very good mood, seeing Diagon Alley cheerful and happy again was the main cause of that. When she'd been banished, Diagon Alley had been getting cleaned up – but the happiness and safety was tentative, as though everyone was worried that at any minute the peace they'd found would break in half like brittle twig. So to see it so happy, even in another timeline, was amazing.

Hali twisted around mid-skip to look at an interesting building, so she didn't see the slippery newspaper on the sidewalk, wet from a recent rain – and she placed her foot down on the paper, only for her leg to fly out in front of her.

The end result was for her to end up sprawled on the floor very ungracefully, her hands out in front of her to take the brunt of the fall. Frowning, Hali stood up, and gave a started jump when Lily's face appeared in front of her, having seemingly teleported to her side.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked worriedly, right behind Lily, he was twiddling his thumbs and looking very concerned.

"Where does it hurt?" Lily asked anxiously, looking at Hali with hawk eyes.

James was on his knees next to her – even standing up she was tiny – and muttering reassurances that seemed mainly for himself. Sirius and Remus had their wands out and gripped tightly, Sirius gave his wand a wave and all the Muggles that were staring at them looked away, their eyes gliding over the spot where they were to give them some privacy.

"I'm ok! Just fine and dandy." Hali said, she wasn't in that much pain besides an aching sting where her hand scraped across the sidewalk. "If it isn't too much trouble though, could you heal my palm for me?" Hali asked, raising her hands to show them the small, but irritating scratches.

Considering she was actually eighteen when she had been turned into a baby, she was rather embarrassed about this entire fiasco. She looked down sheepishly, her long curly hair falling into her face. Looking down made her see the newspaper she had slipped on, it was mostly ripped, but she could read a bit of it.

 **Tony Stark still missing!**

 _World-wide celebrity and American hero, the CEO of Stark Industries, Tony Stark, is still missing. The celebrity billionaire has been in the news for months after his kidnapping in Afghanistan, where he was showing potential buyers his newest genius invention – the Jericho Missile. The sought after weapon has been speculated to be the reason Stark was kidnapped. Being an industrial genius, the possibilities for his kidnapping are plentiful, but "the possibility of ransom is very slim" – The police said in an official interview with Plentiful Newspaper. It's been three months (He was taken on May 6_ _th_ _) and we've yet to see any demands for money, so the police's prediction seems to be right._

 _Once Stark's birthday (May 29_ _th_ _) passed, our newspaper did a special article, dedicated entirely to Tony Stark and all of his achievements, although we've included a recap in this edition (See Page 8) shortly going over everything he's done, for those that don't know –_

Hali couldn't read after that, rain combined with hundreds of Londoners trampling over the worn newspaper made it impossible to make out the text.

Lily tapped Hali's shoulder, and Hali noticed her hand had been healed. Smiling in thanks, the spell surrounding them was dispersed, and they continued on. After all, Hali reallydidn't think that something happening in America would ever affect _her_.

Oh how wrong she was.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, Leaky Cauldron. 2010, August 1** **st** **, 2:26 PM – Later that shopping trip.**

Hali raced into a Muggle toy store, by now they'd wrapped up their clothes shopping and told her to treat herself with some toys.

Just because she wasn't an _actual_ kid didn't mean she couldn't appreciate this second chance at a childhood, after all, she might not get another chance. Actually, she probably would – knowing Hel and her mischievous streak – but not one like this.

She cautiously went further into the brightly colored shop, trying to think _why_ anyone would ever paint the walls such a blindingly cheerful yellow – it was way worse than the Hufflepuff Common Room, at least _their_ yellow was less painful to look at.

Not that she'd snuck into their common room when she wasn't supposed to, or anything.

She had _never_ done anything like that.

Nope.

Hali drifted over to the plushy section, her small fingers trailing across the shelves, and she reach up on her tip toes to reach a red snake plushie but couldn't, scrunching up her face she summoned it wandlessly to her.

This was a new trick that Hel had been teaching her when they had alone time, she could only summon light weight objects as of right now, and couldn't do much else except made hot chocolate come out of her fingers (Accidentally, that is, somehow it happened whenever she tried the _Aguamenti_ spell).

Examining the snake with interest, she clutched it close to her sweater and moved on in her search for more toys. The Potter Family was rich, and she was sure could afford this entire toy shop. But for the sake of not spoiling her, she could only get three items. This was a sensible decision to Hali, and she wasn't upset like your average child would be – but then, those children hadn't met Dudley.

Her eyes raked the shelves, then widened at the sight of a snowy owl with giant silver eyes, and she snatched it up, she was reminded of Hedwig just at the sight of it, on the way back to her parents she grabbed a ginger cat what looked like Crookshanks because it made her think of Hermione.

Hali came to a stop in front of her parents, wondering what a _real_ child would say in this situation.

"The snake's name is King, the owl's name is Hermy, and the cat's called Nargles." Hali said, pretty sure that introducing her toys was something that a six-year-old would do.

Hali looked fondly at the owl, wondering what Hermione would say to the unconventional nickname that Grawp used. Then at the snake, knowing that Ron would be amused and exasperated that she'd named a toy snake after his Quidditch nickname.

Then she looked at her parents, putting on her full puppy-eyes, an expression she'd observed and mastered from watching Lily use to great success on the boys.

"Can I please have them?" She said, knowing what the answer as, but still thinking is was polite to ask.

"Sure, Little Pumpkin!" James said, and Hali handed over her small batch of toys. James smirked, like he'd been given a very important job.

He strutted over to the shop counter, head held high and ready to purchase them – only to look pleadingly towards Lily with his _own_ puppy-eyes when the person working at the register impatiently held out a hand for Muggle money.

"Galleon?" James asked the bored teenager hopefully, the girl just chewed on her gum, staring with dull eyes at the suddenly unsure James.

He slid a gold coin to the girl, and looked to all the world like he was bribing the teenager.

The teen shared Hali's thoughts, and gave a horrified look around, before her eyes latched greedily onto the pure-gold coin, clearly ready to take up the offer if it wasn't for Lily's interruption.

Lily easily plucked the gold coin off the counter, away from the teen's eager eyes.

"So sorry about that." She said, "My Husband _isn't from around_ here." She said that so much hint, it was a wonder that the teen believed her lie, Lily then glared at James with a 'Shut up and do as I do' expression.

James nodded vigorously, "I'm from Nevada."

Remus buried his face in his hands, because James said that inthe _worst_ American accent he'd ever heard.

Sirius snorted, looking like he was already planning on teasing James about this later.

James continue looking confused.

"Ya'll?" He added, his butchered Boston accent going Texas, like that would fix everything.

Hali groaned.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **A/N PLEASE REVIEW! I really, really appreciate all the reviews. And not only do they encourage me to write, but they inspire me as well. Leave suggestions, ideas that you'd like to see happen, and generally give constructive criticism because it's helpful and then I know how to improve.**

 _ **Volitant velum**_ **means curtain flutter in Latin – if your curious.**

 **ANYWAY the next chapter will be up on Friday or Thursday, so so so soooo sorry this was a day later than I planned. I had busy schedules and all that rot.**


	3. Chapter 3, The Thestral Security Guard

**A/N THANKS OH-SO-VERY-MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, FOLLOWS, AND FAVORITES! It means a lot.**

 **We will be getting down to business in this chapter, SHIELD business in particular, including the wonderful super spy Natasha, and her new mission… *smirks***

 **I can't believe I haven't mentioned this, but I'm using the Movie!Verse, because I've never read a Marvel comic.**

 **DISCLAIMER: This is someone else's sandbox and I'm borrowing their toys. So no, I don't own these characters.**

 **Chapter Three**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godrics Hollow, Mysticprunce Park, A play structure. 2010, October 28** **th** **3:23 PM. – Age six, three days after Tony Stark ousted himself as Iron Man**

Hali was dealing with a very big problem; she was being followed.

Now this shouldn't be an actual problem, as she could easily out-magic nearly anyone who stalked her.

The issue here was that it wasn't a _human_ ;neither Muggle, nor wizard. In fact, she was being trailed by a pack of Thestrals. She didn't really know why, only that they loved being around her, and were awfully protective. Even here, sitting on a park swing in autumn, with her parents just a few paces away on a bench, she had an entire pack of Thestrals watching over her.

It was a purely magical park, meaning that witches and wizard were allowed to use magic and not risk being seen by any Muggles. It also meant it was a lot more amusing than any Muggle park could ever try and be.

Some other young children were laughing and running around, playing a game cleverly named 'Hippogriffs and Pygmy Puffs', the magical world's version of 'Sharks and Minnows'. And farther away, a giant jungle gym was home to children playing, near that, a life-sized pirate ship catered to kids who loved imagination.

Somewhat ruining complete the carefree and quaint scene, at least a dozen Thestrals were galloping around, frolicking in the magical sprinklers scattered around, whilst another dozen was flying around or otherwise occupied. Yet a few more were on guard, watching Hali's every move. They took shifts, Hali had realized, no matter what, a couple of Thestrals were there to stalk her.

Weirdly enough, as far as Hali could tell, no one could see them but herself, which wasn't per usual. Although Lily, Remus, and Peter hadn't witnessed the death of someone, James and Sirius would have; since they worked as Aurors. But yet they couldn't see the baby Thestral that was making faces at them behind their backs.

Were they some kind of special breed of Thestrals that could only be seen by those who not only saw death, but had seen Death the personification? Maybe they were attracted to her because she reeked of death? It would make sense, she supposed, that Thestrals would like the Mistress of Death so much; they were, after all, affiliated with death. And it furthering that line of thought, she knew that somehow Thestrals could sense things that normal wizards couldn't, as they had learned about in Care of Magical Creatures, so it wasn't that much of a leap to think they could tell she was familiar with death.

Either that or Hel was playing a prank of her; Hel was the type to do that, so she couldn't be sure.

She blinked as neighing interrupted her ponderings, and she slowed her swinging as she caught sight of a young foal that was scampering up the play structure slide. Hali smiled widely, when its legs splayed out – unable to get a good grip on the slippery slide.

The foal slid backwards, hitting the browning autumn grass with a thump.

The group of adults on the bench didn't bat and eyelash when the disgruntled foal snorted and ran back to its parents, looking unhappy.

Hali was unable to stop a giggle, and Lily smiled at her like Hali was a little angel. Clearly thinking her daughter was having a good time on the swings – not laughing at a terrifying corpse-like skeleton foal that had only the whites of the eye showing, and pearl-white pointy fangs.

Hali had a bizarre thought that she was turning into Hagrid, because despite all that, she thought they were adorable. Hali thought back to when the Thestrals first appeared, it was right after Hel left from one of their visits. Going into more detail, it was the time that she and Hel crowded into Hali's closet, under the invisibility cloak – getting a kick out of James and Sirius playing a one-sided game of hide and seek.

The door had been showered with charms to make her parents conveniently forgot to check there, Hali wouldn't have had to go to drastic measures if it wasn't for them hardly everleaving her home alone and able to converse with Hel.

Hali tossed her feet back and forth, gaining momentum and soaring higher and higher into the air. Hali, at the peak of her swing, let go, her small body flying through the air, wind biting at her, and altogether pulling off a glorious stunt.

But, she then regretted everything in the matter of a split second.

She may or may not have forgotten that her body's magic core was stable, what with having a wand to measure it out, and because of that, she had a way of siphoning out the usually uncontrollable wild magic that children under eleven had; meaning no Accidental Magic for her.

With a small squeak, she found herself falling towards the grassy ground, and not floating like she had originally planned on.

Nothing that bad could happen, except being teased by Hel dying for so quickly (Magical swing sets were far more adventurous and dangerous than their Muggle counterpart), and freaking out her parents.

When your life was about to end, things tended to slow down, for Hali it was no different, only this time she wasn't feeling too sentimental and didn't care much for her life flashing before her eyes. Her wand was in her hand in a flash, and right as she was about to cast some type of spell, a Thestral's teeth grazed her neck gently, lifting her up by the scruff of her black over-sized sweater.

Ah, _right_ , that was yet another thing she'd forgotten when she's hopped off the swing – that the Thestrals were fiercely protective of her.

Once, they'd caught her a _cow_ and brought it to her when her stomach merely growled. And wasn't _that_ hard to blame the cat for, but eventually her family (And Peter – but he doesn't count) believed her fib, and now think that Stephen was magical enough to catch a full-grown cow.

Hali honestly didn't understand how her family (And Peter) hadn't figured out her secret yet.

The Thestral dropped her to the ground gently, neighing in worry until she subtly waved him (Her?) off. Then, she turned to her family; her family that sported very confused faces.

Yet another thing she hadn't accounted on, was her family witnessing that. In fact, she shouldn't have jumped off that rotten swing in the first place, that way she wouldn't have to deal with this nonsense.

"Whaaaa?" Peter mumbled, staring at her, then the swings, then her sweater where there was a small bit of Thestral slobber that slowly dribbled down her back.

Hali winced, wandlessly drying it, and Peter's beady eyes squinted at the spot where the goop had vanished, looking even more bewildered then before.

"Um…" Hali mumbled, Stephen wasn't here (unfortunately) so she couldn't blame him. "Oh wow, mum! I just did Accidental Magic!" Hali invented, plastering an excited smile on her face, and crossing her fingers behind her back.

James stared at her in bewilderment. "That was the strangest accidental magic I've seen." He said with raised eyebrows.

"Yup, and it was definitely Accidental Magic. Nothing else…" Hali assured, "At all." She paused, "Merely accidental." She added to make sure they got the message, because anyone stupid enough to believe Stephen ate a giant cow needed that extra reassurance.

Sirius made a sound of acknowledgement, and then gave a bark like laugh. "My brother once made his pet rock grow arms and legs and become sentient!" He said happily, while Hali stared at him with a disturbed look – wondering just how that could happen. Did it feel pain? Did it have its own thoughts? Dreams?

James laughed loudly, thus cutting Hali away from her existential thoughts.

"Well that's even weirder!" James said, before looking at Hali, "Pumpkin, did you make an invisible hand lift you, or something?" James asked, curious as to what exactly had occurred. It did look very weird, to see her, not float, but seem to be plucked from the air and brought to the ground.

Hali smiled in relief at the way out, still surprised they'd bought her horrible lie, "Definitely. It felt… like a… hand… um… it felt very… hand-like and had a hand-ish shape?" She described feebly, wiggling away from Honey-Badger-Lily's grip, trying to figure out when Lily had picked her up.

"I'm fine, mum." Hali said, giving Lily a small hug to reassure her.

Hali's eyes drifted up, meeting Remus's narrowed gaze; Hali's heart skipped a beat – he wasn't suspicious, right?

Remus spoke up, a skeptical look marring his features, "That's weird…. I've never read _or_ heard of any Accidental Magic like that…" He started, and Hali felt herself pale, "Oh!" he exclaimed, and Hali was sure he was going to oust her. They'd kick her to the streets, let her starve or maybe send her to Azkaban prison or –

"I just remembered that spell we used to lift the Slytherins boxers into the air, you remember, Sirius? It gave them a wedgie, so it must have been some accidental form of that spell!" He said with a smile, glad that he'd remembered why the spell description sounded familiar.

Hali nodded along without really listening as they chatted about how wicked that prank was. Lily's mouth was set in a disapproving line the entire time (She'd let go of Hali, finally), and Peter was hovering on the side lines next to Hali.

"Jam- Your father and his friends – and me – used to do things like that." Peter whispered to Hali, and Hali looked at him with a puzzled look, not knowing where with was going, "But it's not nice to bully… so you… uh, you shouldn't, alright? Don't be mean to someone just because of who you think they are. Like, not all Slytherins are bad, so… um" Peter floundered around for how to explain this to a child, "Be nice to everybody until they're mean to you, and, um… tell us if someone's mean to you, ok?

Hali winced, she'd been doing exactly that to Peter, and a familiar weight of guilt filled her chest at his words.

"Because your father – and Remus, and Sirius, and me – used to be kinda rude" Peter continued, "Not that they're bad people, but they made mistakes… and – err – regret it?" Peter didn't seem to think they actually regretted it, and Hali didn't think so as well. Considering they were in raucous laughter about Snape's underwear being covered with cauldrons.

"Got it." Hali said, realizing he wanted an answer, "I don't like bullies anyway. It's not nice to tease or hurt people. Especially if you think their mean but don't actually know them…" Hali faltered here and stared and Peter with an odd look on her face. Hel would be able to recognize it as her this-isn't-what-I-expected look, but only because she knew her so well.

There were a few awkward seconds in which the Thestrals gazed unblinkingly at Peter, and Hali stared at a place next to Peter's head where her conscience was.

And then Hali moved forward, hugging Peter around the middle with a mumbled – "You're a nice chubby person."

Peter awkwardly patted her on the back, while looking to Remus for help, the group stopped to stare at this momentous occasion where Hali finally stopped giving Peter the cold shoulder.

A click of a camera went off, and Hali practically flew away from Peter, staring at horror at where a camera had seemingly materialized into Lily's hands, and scowling at Lily's vibrant smile.

"That was so cute, you two!" Lily squealed, waving her camera in the air like Luna waved off Nargles.

Hali groaned, this did not mean she liked Peter… because Peter was _evil_ , and – and – bad? And… sneaky, a rat… yeah a rat but – even though he was friendly, no wait, that's not right. He is evil… and… didn't give her that cookie she wanted, even though it did save her from getting a stomach ache (But that's completely irreverent!).

Hali gave a grumbled whine, burrowing her face in her hands much to her family's (Now including Peter's) confusion.

Even her lies to _herself_ were complete rubbish.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, A random populated store street, the sidewalk. December 19** **th** **2010, 4:00 PM – Still age six (Something Hali isn't too pleased about, since she's still smaller than Hel).**

Hali peered into a clothing store window, it was nearly Christmas, and the Potter Family was going about their shopping. They'd split up, but not without necessary precautions taken to not lose track of Hali. The amulet – that Hali was sure was illegal – made it so that whoever had hold of the amulet, in this case James, would be able to see an otherwise invisible red leash (For lack of better word) connected to _own_ amulet, making it so her family would be able to find her again. It worked both ways, luckily, all she had to do to find them was touch her own amulet (That hung from a golden chain on her neck) and follow the red thread, then she'd be reunited she her family.

Hali thought it was a wise decision, seeing as Dudley always wandered off, to the point of Petunia not letting him let go of her hand (Even in the bathroom).

Hali skipped into the clothing store, giving a mental hug to Luna – who _loved_ to skip around. The beach-themed store didn't seem to have anything that Remus or Peter would like, but it did have a pair of dark sunglasses she thought Sirius would love, and a warm winter scarf for Lily.

She hurried out of the store once an annoyingly slow-witted brunette in front of her in line _finally_ stopped gossiping and left.

Once outside the shop, she quickly looked up to the rooftops. And sure enough a Thestral foal was leaning over as she'd expected, its head tilted in curiosity; a second later, twenty _more_ Thestrals poked their heads of various rooftops, and five more looked out from out of alleys and from inside shops.

She also couldn't help but see that many of them were hiding in plain sight, like in black and white spy shows. Meaning that a Thestral was wearing a baseball hat and dark sunglasses, reading a newspaper upside-down, the horse sitting much like a human (It looked _very_ creepy) on a bus bench.

For a moment, Hali tried to wrap her mind around how the Thestrals even managed to get a television working, and how they managed to get ahold of enough spy movies to learn that trick, but she gave up – deciding her pitifully human mind (Although she wasn't too sure of the human part) couldn't comprehend such things, and not wanting to strain herself.

Hali gave a small laugh; they hadn't given up on 'protecting' her. Following her everywhere she went, and commonly touring the same areas she went to. So far no one had noticed that in all of their family photos, at least one Thestral photobombed it.

Hali didn't actually know where they got food to eat, or how they were alive by now, considering she hadn't ever fed them. Speaking of food, she eyed the butchers store across the road; then glanced back up at the Thestrals; and back again towards the butcher's store, she received a nod in response to her silent question.

Hali shuddered, their intellect was more than a bit disturbing to her, and, merely to procrastinate the inevitable questions the butcher would have for her, trekked into a bookstore. There was no harm in finishing up her Christmas shopping before she carted a pack of bloody meat around.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

Sometime later, after buying Remus some book called _The Hobbit_ , getting Peter a Christmas sweater with a cat on it, and purchasing James a Muggle game called 'Twister', she was finally at the butchers.

Instead of using the money that her parents gave her to shop with, she'd be making use of the money Hel kindly brought over from her original universe, as not to raise awkward questions.

"So you want a 'hundre 'an fi'fy pounds 'o meat? Are 'ye sure 'bout that?" The strong beefy man working as a butcher said with raised eyebrows.

Hali huffed in irritation. "We've been over this, yes, I want the meat. It's to feed our cat!" When the butcher stared at her in disbelief she added – "We work at a zoo, the cat is a lion. A very, very hungry lion."

He nodded, buying her flimsy lie (How?!) without suspicion, and with a loud grunt, he started lifting thick slabs of meat into plastic wraps.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

Eight minutes later saw Hali ducking into a nearby alley, where the butcher had helped (Read: He did all the work) lug over the big wooden crates of meat, which they'd (He'd) had to take in trips. With a wave of her precious Elder Wand – that she'd summoned easily to her hand – she shrunk the boxes until she could place them into her pocket, then stuck a feather-light charm on them, otherwise she'd be carrying very heavy, but very tiny, boxes of meat around.

Pocketing the small boxes, she hoisted her paper bags filled with Christmas shopping, and started on her way out of the alley, banishing her wand and fully intending to leave.

But, some irritating man _had_ to go and ruin her plans of drinking hot chocolate at home.

The wizened man came out from behind a rubbish bin with a knife, he looked a little tipsy, which explained why Hali hadn't seen him – since he was most likely unconscious. He drunkenly swung his knife around, and – mentally wondering why everyone was so drunk today – Hali saw _another_ person stumble into the alley, looking as tipsy as the knife-guy.

Hali heartbeat quickened with trepidation, this was a horrible combo to stumble across. The two drunkards stared down each other, before the shorter woman had to ruin the rather peaceful lull.

"You smell funny!" She declared, giggling and shaking her head, as though to clear it – but clearly failing.

With a small sigh, Hali raised her wand to stun the two of them and get out of here, but the scraggily man with grimy brown hair grabbed the woman with dirty blonde locks, pointing his knife to her throat.

Hali blinked; she honestly didn't know _why_ he'd turned this into a hostage situation, but, maybe in his fuzzy mind it made sense – who knew.

Hali evaluated her options; hostage situations were something Hali hated, because everything depended on _who_ the person with the hostage was. This mugger was a complete unknown, unlike the Death Eaters who commonly held hostages.

Hali remembered when her best friend Hermione was taken hostage, Hali had managed to rescue her best friend. But only after Bellatrix had carved the cruel, cruel, word 'Mudblood' into her arm.

" _Legilimens_ " Hali cried, the transparent rippling blue wave hit him dead on. Hali was horrible at Legilimency and as such only got the clouded thoughts the raced through his mind. 'Freaky _Witch girl…' 'I've got to buy some watermelons' 'Want to get ransom for little freak girl' 'Why am I surprised there's some witchy mojo going on – it's probably why I'm poor, stupid magic.' 'I'm going to give the little girl a scare, make her surrender' 'Is there refunds for potted plants?'_

Hali emerged from the random surface thoughts that flitted through his mind, and briefly thought about what Professor Snape saw when he used Legilimency in potions class. Considering he dealt with prepubescent boys and girls on a daily basis, she probably didn't want to know.

Hali charged at the mugger, if it was intimidation he was going for – then she would reverse the trick. Although she'd dealt with hostage situations before, she'd never deployed _this_ tactic before, but she had always wanted to – especially when they'd taken Hermione.

Hali wandlessly cast a slipping spell on the dirty alley floor (directly in front of the kidnapper), while at the same time shooting two quick spells out with her wand to dissuade people from going near the alley. The last thing she needed was yet _another_ person to meander here, and knowing her luck, that was exactly what would happen.

Hali dashed right into the slippery area and fell into a lunge, one leg out in front while the other was bent back. Hali flew right under his wide open legs just as he fumbled with the knife, only to find that the second spell she'd cast had worked, and that his knife had been replaced with an Elmo's toy from some random store.

"Elmos world!" The robotic toy sang, making the attempted kidnapper shriek and drop it, he twisted around with his drunken hostage – only to find himself face to face with a smug Hali.

"Drop the girl!" Hali cried in her best police voice, but pouted a little when the terrified kidnapper didn't even move, just stood there, holding the woman in his limp arms. "Fine, fine… be that way." Hali grumbled, then swished her wand, stunning the woman and floating her out of the man's slack grip.

"'imme want… your money" The man said pathetically, and Hali shook her head.

"No; you're not allowed to do that, it's not nice." Hali chastised, glad that that experience was over.

She shot quick scourgify at the dirty man, because the woman had been right, he really _did_ have a strong stench. Then with a mastered wave of her wand, she sent an obliviate at him, erasing the last twenty minutes.

The man just quietly in what Hali had come to recognize was the woozy state after getting obliviated, while Hali turned an old tin can into a portkey, with a whispered, " _Portus_ " and the clear image of a police station in mind.

Then, she tasked herself with repositioning his arms into a holding position, and shoving the tin can into his slack grip. He stared at her with a befuddled look about his face, and his arms slumped limply to his sides, dropping the can in the process.

Hali groaned the entire time she went about casting an isolated body-bind curse to make his arms go all stiff. Then Hali repositioned his now almost doll-like arms again; finally, she was able to get him holding the can like it was a newborn baby.

The portkey's timer was set to go off in a minute (Now twenty seconds), so hopefully the man in a ragdoll-like state wouldn't get eaten by the Thestrals that were swarming around her in that time.

"Um… don't eat him." Hali said half-heartedly – she really didn't want him to die. Not only because fresh meat that was very expensive and she didn't want the man to spoil their appetite, but because killing was bad. Although the other aspect was a selling point not to let the Thestrals have free rein.

"I have a peace offering of meat, so – uh – don't eat him." The Thestrals turned to unblinkingly stare at her, and she looked back, trying to figure out why she was having a staring contest with some creepy horses, and waiting for a ragdoll-man to teleport.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters in New York, Nick Fury's office. January 23** **th** **2011, 9:00 PM. – A month after the previous scene, almost February of the next year (Hali is still six).**

Natasha strode into Director Fury's office, hands clasped behind her back, but still somehow seeming at ease. She was dressed in the standard skin-tight SHIELD uniform, and she stood, awaiting whatever Fury had for her. All he'd said was that he had a case for her that she'd want to be involved in.

Now, Natasha could be vengeful, and did have some missions that she got a sick pleasure from doing, like killing the worst sort of people, or something more… personal, like anything to do with the Red Room.

"Hello, Sir." Natasha greeted, nodding to the director of SHIELD.

Fury looked at her seriously, "We have a rescue mission that you might be interesting in taking up; with the gap of peace we have, I thought you might want something to keep you… occupied." The suspicion Fury had towards this peaceful period was palpable in his voice and expression, and Natasha smirked slightly, she didn't trust it either. When things got quiet in the crime world, it normally meant something big was going to happen.

"Of course, Sir, who am I rescuing?" Natasha said formally, keeping at bay any sarcastic comments she wanted to make about their bout of peace, knowing that right now, it wouldn't be welcomed.

Fury brought a thin stack of files out of his handsome desk, slapping it onto the polished desk. Natasha reached for it, disregarding the stamped on 'CLASSIFIED' with the ease of someone who'd long since stopped being frightened away from such a word.

She flipped it open, taking out the rest document and reading it over.

NAME: _Hali (Short for something?) Potter_

GENDER: _Female_

AGE: Six

HEIGHT: _3'9_

RACE: _Caucasian_

HAIR: _Black, curly_

EYES: _A genetically proven impossible color of emerald-green_

TITLE: _Potential ally, possible threat_

FAMILY: _Parents, Lily Potter-nee Evans, and James Potter. Is seen with three others constantly, all three are males (Possible relatives?)_

PLACE OF RESIDENCE: _England, Godrics Hollow, address unknown_

SKILLS _: Potter has some type of ability that allows her to erase memories (Some type of mind scrambling that causes the brains frontal cortex to quickly and effectively dispel and deem the memory unimportant to remember?)_

 _Potter can make a previously impeccable floor slippery, has the ability to teleport people, including herself, around. The limitations of this teleportation technology and or scientific addition to Potter's body is unknown, although the farthest record of her teleportation is twenty miles (From Branfoot Boulevard to Proudamsle Street)._

 _Potter can (possibly) see things that others cannot, this might be some form of hallucinations, or actual things that exist outside of our own perception. Side effects of her powers, to herself and to others, is currently unknown._

 _Potter has skills in hand-to-hand combat, and is able to deal with a hostage situation successfully (Where was she trained?). Potter is capable enough to take down five S. .L.D agents within fifteen minutes._

Natasha looked up from the file after finishing it, it went on for a while like that, ending with a conclusion of what to do if you saw her, and a few pages of ifs and assumptions of Potter's personality, backstory, and scientific causes for each of her abilities – as was the standard for this type of file. Natasha's beautiful face was impassive whilst internally she was seething.

Natasha had been very young when she'd been taken to the Red Room, and wasn't oblivious towards the fact that many other children were also victims; but she _hated_ people who experimented on kids, or anyone, for that matter. Children, to her, were impressionable, naïve, often times sweet, and all-together innocent, things that she wanted to protect, it was a horrible crime to manipulate or otherwise hurt someone so young by giving them _abilities_ (Even within her thoughts, the disgust was evident).

Clearly this child had been taken, or sold (It was a horrible thing, but sometimes parents or relatives who often abused their child would sell them out to scientists, letting them get 'powers' while getting a hefty sum of money in return) to some sick person, then trained in her new powers.

Natasha looked over the desk to where Fury sat, his dark-skinned face grave, and he pierced her with a one-eyed stare.

"Potter," He began strongly, "Needs to be taken out of her current situation, that much is clear. As you have read, she is young, and as much as a victim as anyone in her situation would be. I _highly_ doubt she signed up for whatever _training_ " He said, glowering impressively, he too despised the people who did this type of thing, and both he and Natasha had a righteous need to get justice in this situation. Both of them unaware that little Hali was happy and safe, though (At the time of the meeting) she was a tad hungry. "She has been getting."

Natasha nodded, "She'll go into the SHIELD Protection Act, after I get her?" She said, making it clear that she _would_ be the one to rescue the girl, Hali, from her likely abusive family, and get her far away from the cruel hands of her surely harsh trainers.

"Yes." Fury said firmly and without hesitation, "As you read in the report, she was found out becauseluckily no one's taught her subtly."

Natasha nodded, she knew that it was a very good thing for the kid to be so obvious, sometimes the ones who were well versed in hiding themselves weren't rescued or taken from their situation before they went bad, or were, by then, untrusting to all around them.

"She has been caught on CCTV multiple times playing around with her abilities – nothing too harmful – and most of her confrontations with the agents we've already sent over have _also_ been recorded." He paused, tapping a small button a small device, and the very thin television that hung behind Fury lit up with a grainy photo of the girl.

Natasha nearly winced, but years of training only made her expression darken. The girl was very small, and had a frightened look on her face as she faced of a SHIELD Agent whose hands were up in a placating gesture (Unknown to Natasha, she was frightened only because the Thestrals looked ready to kill the man in front of her, and she didn't want that to happen).

"My _friends_ in Europe gladly passed over most of the information in the files you just read, along with a much surveillance footage as they could." The emphasis on 'friends' was unneeded, much like the words 'I'll be right back' meant that whoever said that would die in a horror film, it was common knowledge within SHIELD that 'friends' coming from Fury meant he was talking about his world-wide collection of agents scattered across the globe, picking up important information and reporting it back.

It was like an inside joke everyone knew.

"By that, you mean as much as they could steal?" Natasha said dryly, a smirk touching her lips, "Sir?" She said, easily tacking on the title in a way that made it seem respectful, despite how her sarcastic comment contradicted that.

Fury nodded, it was true and they both knew it, before he continued on like she hadn't interrupted, "Potter managed to take down _all_ our operatives we sent to negotiate. She seems to be under the impression we want to _harm_ her, or use her for her abilities." He paused, and Natasha frowned ever-so-slightly, that was expected, what with her trainers probably scaring her into not telling anyone, and not to forget her _family_ , but it was still saddening that they'd turned an innocent child paranoid.

Fury continued, "None of the agents were killed, nor seriously injured. Each one of them were sent to a police department without their memories of what had occurred, and in some type of unexplained coma that they woke up from in a few minutes." Fury said seriously, "This is good, in a way, as it proves that she isn't heartless."

Natasha glowered, "I don't think any child can be heartless, _sir_." She said, narrowing her eyes dangerously, it was something she felt strongly about, what with people thinking the same of her, as a child _and_ as an adult.

"I know." Fury said calmly, "But traumatizing experiences can cause extreme emotional damage, making one, at the very least, cold to others."

Natasha nodded stiffly, but she was appeased enough to not expound on the topic.

"Now." Fury began again, "You will watch what little surveillance footage we gathered, and then I'll send you on your way. Got it?"

Natasha nodded, she was looking forward to this mission _very_ much.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Godrics Hollow, Potter House, Hali's Bedroom. January 24** **th** **, 2011, 11:23 AM. – The day after Natasha's meeting with Fury.**

Hali was annoyed, and Hel was busy at some tournament so she didn't have anyone to complain to. Her annoyance stemmed from the frankly confusing people who had been showing up the past few weeks, each wanting to 'rescue' her, and each giving a heartwarming speech about how her powers weren't bad, and she could do great things with them.

That was all well and good, but at the end of each of their repetitive chats, they'd ask her to come with them, to America. These, Hel had happily informed her when she'd told her, were SHIELD Agents, and apparently, they really wanted to rescue her. From what, Hali still didn't know.

But now they were getting steadily harder to stun. She _really_ didn't want to hurt them, since they seemed to mean well, but she couldn't let them take her away from her loving family – and so, she stunned them, sent them on their merry way to a police station, and washed her hands of them.

Or, she would have, if they didn't keep trying over and over again.

That was why Hali sat with an irate look, plonked on her handsomely made wooden bed. Sunlight streamed in through a window, pooling onto her very light-brown carpet. It was a rare sunny day, the birds chirped and whistled, laughter rang from downstairs where the boys were playing a game of Twister.

But she was still annoyed.

Then, just to time to lift her out of her irritated mood, Hel appeared before Hali in the center of her room. A pleased smile on her face, and a small bag in hand. The pool of light landed on her, emphasizing the skeletal half of her body, and making the fact that she was clad in a gray casual cloak instead of her usual withered one very obvious. A small sticker clung to her cloak, the words 'My Name's Hel' on her chest – like one of those silly things that school teachers gave their students when they went on a field trip.

"Your here" Hali beamed, surprised but not upset, leaping from her bed and running into Hel's arms, and wrapping her into a hug. They looked at each other, nose's almost touching, and they both grinned at the same time.

"Going to kiss me, Hali?" Hel teased, smirking.

Hali rolled her eyes, pushing away from her incorrigible friend.

"Nope!" Hali chirped, then paused, considering it for a moment, "Although it did look like that." She said, snorting, and then began – in an mellowed out and smooth voice – " _The two leaned into each other's arms, the rosy sunlight throwing her lipstick into greater color, they leaned forward, lips about to touch and then they_ –" Hali was cut off with Hel cuffing her on the head.

"Git." Hel said mildly, "That doesn't make sense, anyway. I don't even _have_ lipstick. And the sunlight isn't _pink_ , it's more of an orange color."

"You don't appreciate a good scene." Hali said, laughing, and the two were about to fall into their usual banter session, or, they would have, if not for the small animal-like noise coming from Hel's satchel.

Hali's eyes narrowed in on the bag, and she gave a very girlish squeal which would later embarrass her, once she had time properly.

"Give me my precious sugar glider!" Hali chirped, bouncing on the balls of her feet, for what else could it be?

Hel smugly pulled the weird looking bug-eyed beast from her pouch, it gave a weird shrieking noise, like a bird, and flew into Hali's hair – biting into her scalp.

"How adorable!" Hali gasped, tugging the biting sugar glider from her tousled hair and petting its tiny head.

" _Now_ do you wanna kiss me?" Hel said, smirk growing to Draco Malfoy levels of smirking, " _And she leaned in, giving a whispered thanks into her ear… Breath tingling against her earlobe_ –" Hel was stopped from continuing her appalling scene by Hali cuffing _her_ on the head.

"Oh quit it, would you?" Hali said, and Hel only snickered in response – giving Hel little hope she wouldn't be mercilessly teased about it for years to come. "But really, Hel, thanks so much!" Hali said, "Benevolont is the best!" She said as the small but deadly glider dug its claws into her shoulder, most likely drawing blood.

"Really?" Hel said, wrinkling her nose, "That's the name you choose?! Why not Fluffy, or something?"

"That's a Cerberus's name." Hali said immediately, thinking of Fluffy from First Year.

"Okay" Hel drawled out, in such a way that made it clear she didn't agree.

"Benevolont is a brilliant name, so it doesn't matter!" Hali said cheerfully, ignoring that she pronounced it differently the second time she said it.

Hel snorted, "Whatever, I've got to go to the after party." She looked disgusted for a moment, "Ugh, Thanos is going to be there – he's such a pig." She complained, "Sorry to cut our meeting short!" She said, already ready to launch herself out the window in her most favored method of leaving.

"Wait! how do I exclaim Benevolont to my parents?" Hali said, having not ever though that far into getting a sugar glider.

Hel laughed, "You ty explaining Bob to your family, I wish you luck!" And with an evil laugh worthy of a Dark Lord Hel leapt out the open window (The nametag from the competition still left on, making it less epic).

Hali sighed, now she had to someone get her parents to believe that the now nicknamed 'Bob' had been brought into the house by Stephen.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **A/N** _ **IMPORTANT**_ **if you noticed how weird it was that only Hali was discovered out of all the magical, let me explain.**

 **To me, magic is partially sentient. So the magical animals, wizards/witches, and whatnot, would adapt towards technology, because this is their world and their magic is connected to it. So subconsciously, even if the wizard doesn't know about security cameras, that wizard's magic would know.**

 **The persons magic would trick cameras, everyone watching would just see a perfectly normal person, with their hands in their pockets or something. While they are in reality levitating something. The magic that Hali has can't, as her magic is still tied to her world. Meaning it can't properly adapt (Hope that cleared it up!).**

 **Please review! It makes my day, and will pressure me into writing quicker, I LOVE constructive criticism, and it helps me a lot to improve my writing. Give me ideas and things YOU would like to see.**

 _ **(Edit: 9/11/2016, re-wording, better foreshadowing, and the entire Natasha talking to Fury scene changed completely – also, grammar changes.**_


	4. Chapter 4, A Weird Cult Called Ten Rings

**Hullo! Thanks for all the reviews and follows! Took a while to get this up as it's extra-long and I got my friend (Joy Ocean) to beta read for me. Don't fear though, there's plenty more SHIELD business, some 'nice' terrorists called the Ten Rings. I even included a man by the name of Tony S.! (Who you** _ **might**_ **know)**

 **DISCLAIMER: If I owned Harry Potter or Marvel I'd be living in a replica of Hogwarts. Something that's a good use of money. I'd also be probably sitting on a throne dressed in a SHIELD uniform. And pretending to be a queen, whilst calling everyone around me 'peasants' (another good use of time and money if I do say so myself!)**

 **Chapter Four**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Little Whinging, Magnolia Walk Park. Up-In-A-Tree. February 16** **th** **2011, 1:20 PM.**

Hali was not having a tantrum like her parents may claim, she had simply gotten very, very mad and run off. She'd gone to the nearby park after the disastrous lunch party. It was _not_ a tantrum! She considered herself mentally seventeen, not counting the years she spent as a child. And seventeen was much too old for tantrums.

It wasn't just the general situation that reminded her of when she was in 5th year, when she had been yearning for more information on what Voldemort was up too. But she was even in the _exact_ same park in which Dudley had taunted her. So talk about déjà vu to the extreme in this situation.

She wouldn't be taking out her anger by climbing a tree if Lily hadn't insisted on reuniting with her _lovely_ sister Petunia. And the word lovely was coated in so much sarcasm it was slimy, slimy as Hippogriff spit. If someone asked her how she knew how slimy Hippogriff slobber was, she'd kindly point out that Buckbeak seems to be part camel in that regard.

Anyway, call her outburst of frustration a tantrum all you want, but Hali had no regrets for storming off to the park. As was expected, Lily's late Valentine's Day reunion went awfully.

At first, it was fine. Everyone was behaving cordially-ish together, apparently Vernon and Petunia were much nicer here than in her home dimension. Even Dudley was being kind to her, as he wasn't trained from his toddling ages to hate her. But then...thinly veiled insults were flung, and James and Sirius took personal offense to that.

They really shouldn't have started verbally attacking Lily, because when Lily started crying… well, the yelling match (that surprisingly Peter, of all people started) reminded Hali too much of her lonely and horrible years at Privet Drive.

And that was the story of why Hali was absently swinging her legs back and forth, stroking Nargles (her plush ginger cat) while sitting in a tree.

Hali was expecting her parents to notice her absence very quickly, but it wasn't as though she hadn't left without telling anyone.

She told her cousin the pig where she was heading off too, and that counted. Right? Sure he didn't look like a human (more like a whale than a young boy), but he was certainly a human.

In fact, when Ron suggested he might be some kind of magical creature in fourth year. Hali took the chance and snuck some potions from Snape's stores, potions that determined if the person taking them was a human.

To her disappointment, Dudley was in fact a human boy. Even though the potion took a bizarrely long time to decide, and Ron said that meant Dudley clearly had some pig genes.

No one, not even Hermione, knew when or how Ron learned enough about science to know what a gene was. Considering he'd screamed the first time he experienced the flushing of an automatic toilet in a Muggle bathroom.

They had to assure people that Ron was traumatized from working in a water bottle factory, (not her best excuse, Hali would later admit) and hated the sound of churning water.

Now that she'd distracted herself with happy memories of Ron being terrified, she was tranquil and joyous enough to head back to the warzone of Number 4.

Hali pulled her legs up, getting ready to jump off her thin branch and land with style, but apparently she hadn't learned from The Great Swing Incident of Mysticprunce Park.

Because, as she jumped into the air falling gracefully, she landed in the most disgruntled, and unflattering way possible. In other words, she'd fallen on her butt.

Oops.

There were only a few people milling around the park, so she picked herself up and tried to pretend that nothing happened. She was accidentally mimicking what Stephen-The-Fat-Cat did when he ran into their house's sliding glass doors.

Unfortunately, just like with Stephen, someone noticed her mishap and started laughing. Somehow attracting the attention of nearly the entire park by doing this.

"I'M OK." Hali yelled to everyone, dusting herself off, nonverbally using a spell to vanish the dirt.

That was her newest wandless trick, though it wasn't perfect. In fact far from it, seeing as every time she vanished something it didn't go into nonexistence like it was supposed to – but instead teleported somewhere random.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X

 **United States of America, Stark Mansion. Kitchen. February 16** **th** **2011, 1:25 PM.**

Across the ocean in the United States of America, Tony Stark sneezed as a cloud of dirt hit him in the face. "What the –" He exclaimed, looking around his otherwise pristine beachside mansion with bewilderment.

X - X - X - X - X - X -

Back at the park, Hali shrugged. Hoping it didn't hit someone… like that piano she'd practiced vanishing on. (A bad idea to begin with. She didn't know what she had been thinking)

She shuddered at the memory of that poor sods horrific 'accident'. Being a nice girl, she'd anonymously paid for the man's medical bills, and sent lots of flowers and cards.

Many, many, _many_ flowers and plenty of 'Sorry I dropped a piano on your head' cards.

Shaking her head of those thoughts, she waved away the small gathered crowd. And started speed walking away, trying not to show that she was limping from her fall (and unknowingly mimicking the cat again).

It was a nice day out, the clouds let the sun peek out behind them. A warm breeze ruffled the thin trees in the park, and Hali set off down the grassy lawn of the park, towards Number 4 Privet Drive.

She couldn't be sure how long she'd been away, but considering the last she'd seen James he was red in the face with anger it was surely a yelling match by now.

But Hali didn't particularly wanting to hurry up and go back into what was surely a gruesome battlefield. A battle between her family, a whale, a pig, and a giraffe. Those zoo animals formally were known as Vernon, Dudley, and Petunia.

Hali spun around in circles as she skipped down the sidewalk, (Making sure not to put pressure on her bad leg) humming a song from a popular wizard band.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X -

Hali was back at Privet Drive in nearly no time at all, she twisted around on the sidewalk to look towards where Mrs. Figg's house had been in her home dimension, feeling nostalgic.

But the old squib wasn't there looking after her anymore, in fact it seemed that Mrs. Figg's house now belonged to someone completely different. Hali could tell because instead of Mrs. Figg's usual messy garden littered with cat poo and potato plants that no one dared eat (they had been an ugly purple color somehow), now there was a cutesy garden with _only_ pink and purple flowers and bird fountains and it was all sickly cute.

Hali immediately hated the residents. They'd stolen Mrs Figg's house, and that destroyed a sense of normalcy in this crazily different dimension.

One thing that still would always surprise Hali was the small yet important things that _weren't_ right. And Hali didn't like it as it made her open her eyes to that she was truly so far away from

If Hali was honest, she'd say that the Neville of this world was nice, sweet, and a good kid. But the only issue was that this wasn't her Neville, he wasn't that boy that had lost a toad. So it wasn't the same at all.

Just like the Luna of this world wouldn't be the same, because - as Dumbledore said. Your choices make you who you are, and this world's version of Neville and Luna hadn't and wouldn't have to make the same decisions. And thus they weren't truly her best friends, more like badly made copies.

Hali paused in trailing her usual steps to Number 4, the steps she'd never forgotten from her many years living here. And she thought about how so many things were wonderful, and so many things weren't.

Shaking out of her thoughts as they were getting too dark for her liking, she petted Nargles and imagined Luna talking to her, telling her not to be so silly and to enjoy this new opportunity.

So, with a Luna-like smile she started to twirl and dance as she walked. Taking the time to be sentimental, pointing out spots to Nargles where she'd played once upon a time, like in that ditch was where she'd enjoyed splashing in the rain water that gathered there.

There was of course the bad spots, like by that tall gangly tree Dudley had beat her up when she was eight.

Hali smiled somewhat sadly, even though Ron said she forgave too easily. He wasn't totally wrong, but she hated Vernon, and really disliked Petunia. However with Dudley… Dudley was just 'eh'.

Actually, that defined her feelings for him perfectly.

She didn't like him, because even she didn't forgive _that_ easily. But she also didn't hate him, as he was only how he was because of Hali, and his parent's idiotic viewpoints on how to raise a child.

It was Hali's fault because, as seen in this dimension, if she hadn't lived here Petunia wouldn't have encouraged Dudley to beat Hali up. Thus allowing Dudley not to learn from early on that punching was a good thing.

Shaking her head of those thoughts, she continued skipping around in circles, chattering to Nargles as though it were Luna.

Ok, so she was definitely stalling, not wanting to go back to Number 4.

Now unfortunately, because she was getting so dizzy from twirling, she didn't notice her normal Thestral guard neighing in agitation. Nor did she notice the large black van that slowly, and in near complete silence, snuck up on her like a great large beast.

Hali only twisted around when she heard a slam, and found herself scarily close to the van with its side doors wide open. She took a few quick steps backward on the sidewalk at once, ready to call her wand to her at any given moment.

But she really didn't want to have to do damage control just because she used magic in front of a Muggle. Especially if the Muggle was just someone parking their daunting looking van and minding their own business.

There was a sound of feet and she tried to look behind her, where the noise came from. But when she tried twisting her head, she found she couldn't. One second everything was fine, and the next someone was tightly grabbing her face, stopping her from looking around. And another person quickly coming to assist keeping the wiggling girl quiet.

Panic reached Hali, she struggled for a moment, not knowing what to do now that _she_ was the hostage for once. The issue was that she wasn't in her teenage body, she was tiny and weak against beefy men like these.

A rag was shoved over her mouth, and she held her breath. Trying not to breath in the smelly, disgusting thing. At the same time as she struggled not to breathe, Hali's mind worked frantically to figure how she hadn't seen these kidnappers coming.

But, just as the thought flashed through her mind, she saw a second van hidden on the side of the road like a cat about to pounce. Its doors were also wide open, meaning the first car had been a distraction whilst someone snuck up behind her.

She took in an odd gasp of air at her understanding, accidentally taking in the stench of whatever was on that horrible rag, she called her Elder Wand to her immediately. Her hands shook as she tried to get a firm grasp on the wand, and then the world seemed to spin.

But her precious wand clattered to the ground, and rolled away as she started losing consciousness.

Hali's hand reached out into the blurriness that was all she could see, trying wandless magic. Only to find that disciplining her mind (something she needed to do for a spell) was impossible in this situation.

A hand grabbed Nargles out of her's, and bizarrely she panicked most of all at this, deliriously convinced they'd capture Luna, that they'd stolen her lovely innocent Luna from her.

The last thing she remembered doing was trying to yell for help, hopefully drawing her family from their house. And not have a naïve Muggle try to help, only to be defenseless against whatever magic was in the (clearly magical) rag.

Then her body went slack in the kidnapper's arms, the two men nodded to each other. Exchanging cruel smirks, they hefted up Hali's body and carted her away, her head lolling around in her unconscious state.

Somewhere in the skies above the unmoving body, three dozen Thestrals growled with the promise of sweet, sweet revenge of whoever dared touch their precious Hali.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X -

 **Little Whinging, Magnolia Walk. The sidewalk. February 16** **th** **2011, 1:31 PM.**

Natasha Romanova, dressed in pedestrian clothes that blended in with the people around her, was currently walking hurriedly down Privet Drive.

Potter had last been seen over in this general location and while normally Natasha wouldn't be walking so quickly, because looking like you were in a hurry meant you attached more unwanted attention, right now she was more determined to get to Potter. Elsewise the infamous Ten Rings terrorist group might get to her first.

She speed walked over to where the girl was supposed to be, on Privet Drive visiting family. (How Fury got this information she didn't know.)

The street was too normal, so average and overly boring that Natasha felt suspicious of the entire place. It was like a nuke town, with houses that were perfectly depicting a calm suburban lifestyle.

Natasha was just reaching Number 4, where the Potter girl should be visiting when a ruckus arose from a street away. Natasha felt unease prickle her neck and she ran towards the noise.

X - X - X - X - X - X -

When Natasha arrived, it was clearly too late.

She could see a van screeching in the opposite direction of Privet drive, leaving only an ornate stick that she knew to be Potter's. And dark tire tracks that let her know the gist of what had happened. Clearly the girl had been ambushed and kidnapped.

Natasha swore with gusto, her colorful language enough to make a sailor faint right off their boat.

Growling with a mixture of annoyance and anger, she touched her earpiece, establishing the connection between herself and SHIELD.

"What's happened?" Fury barked at her through the communication system, probably having his sixth sense of 'something's wrong' act up.

"Well Sir, Hali Potter has been kidnapped, taken into a large black van. Couldn't get the license plate as it was covered with paint. Just as you'd suspected the Ten Rings are likely behind it. I have no solid proof of the perpetrators identity. Should I follow?" She said, her keen eyes making notes of where the van had gone.

She wasn't about to let a terrorist group have full rain on a small girl, even if said girl was a high threat.

Fury could be heard yelling to some people in his gruff voice, probably relieving some of the stress he'd been feeling lately. Most of that stress was because of Stark, not to mention the Hulk. (Natasha internally glared at the mere mention of that horrifying monstrosity.)

"Follow but _do not_ attempt to engage. Get the location of where she's being held if you can." Fury could be heard talking to Phil Coulson in the background, by the sound of it Phil was recommending something that Fury really didn't like.

"I'll have to ask Stark for a… favor." Fury spat the word 'favor' like a vile curse word. "He has the most experience with the Ten Rings after all." By now Natasha was _almost_ amused. Fury sounded like he was convincing himself that it was necessary to puff up Stark's ego. Not like it would make much of a difference, she swore that man's ego was bigger than his net worth. In all honestly, Natasha didn't want to work with Stark either. He was too random for her to properly assume what he was going to do.

But right now none of that mattered, what mattered was not letting those two vans get away.

She sprinted over to a fast looking car in one of the cookie cutter style houses. The reason she went for this one, and not one closer to where she was. Was that this looked much nicer and more expensive, in other words. It would be faster, Natasha flung open the unlocked car-door, finding it all too easy to hotwire it to work to her wishes.

Natasha stomped on the gas pedal and the car vroomed in response. With the noise of squealing tires, the car backed up quickly – trampling the neat garden of the brick house.

As the car hightailed it away, a small group of three dashed out of the boring looking house yelling obscenities.

A different family followed confusedly after them, looking around at the damage with raised eyebrows.

"Hey… Where's Hali?" Peter said, raising his voice over Vernon's rant.

Lily paled drastically, and even more flowers were destroyed on this faithful day as Lily's mother instincts kicked in, crushing the flowers as she dashed away to look for her missing daughter. Vernon roared in anger, and Petunia was shaking with rage at the destruction of the flowers. The entire Potter family, including all the surrogate uncles, followed suit, Sirius taking extra care to stomp on as many flowers as possible as he ran off to find his goddaughter.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **United States of America, Stark Mansion. The office. February 16** **th** **2011, 2:04 PM.**

Tony Stark was in his house (read: mansion), currently trying to figure out how the dirt managed to get in.

As he re-watched the footage from his private security footage for fiftieth time, he decided to take a break.

He _wasn't_ giving up, that was a ridiculous assumption.

He was… simply taking an extended break from the SCIENTIFICALLY-IMPOSSIBLE-SPONTANEOUSLY APPEARING-DIRT. He took a deep breath after ranting that in his mind, feeling put out that he couldn't figure something this simple out.

Tony gave an irritated look towards his camera (*cough* he pouted *cough*), then stood up and stretched out his back. Getting the pleasing sensation of it cracking, Tony pushed with pricy chair away from his equally pricy desk.

He was going to go and grab some lunch, maybe even get some takeout.

Already fantasizing on how to make a dramatic entrance to Burger King, preferably with lots of fireworks – he gave a start when his cell phone rang.

He rolled his eyes, and fully prepared to pretend he wasn't here. (Unless it was Pepper calling, because she _always_ knows why he didn't answer. It's really creepy actually.)

"I know you're there Stark." Agent Phil Coulson's voice was tinged with the robotic sound phone calls gave. Tony could almost see Phil's permanently amused smile on his face as he spoke.

"No you don't." Tony said in response, putting his Stark phone on speaker and exiting the office to raid his own kitchen.

"Well I do now." Phil pointed out, and Tony rolled his eyes, a contrast to his entertained smirk on his face.

"What do you want, or rather, what does SHIELD want now?" Tony said impatiently, looking at his watch, his eyebrows rose and he made a face.

He had a meeting soon, if he could remember from what Pepper told him.

Actually it might be the next week, now that he thought about it. He made a mental note to 'forget' to ask Pepper when it was, that way he wouldn't have to go. It was only another meeting of rich people trying to buy his Iron Man suit.

Tony exited his sleek modern office, walking through a wide hallway with windows that looked out at his private beach, heading for the large, sweeping staircase. He turned his attention back to the phone call in his hand.

"What'd you say?" Tony said, realizing he hadn't even been listening – too busy trying to figure out to say no to those persistent sods, who kept bugging him for sales.

Phil's voice was completely serious very abruptly, so much so that Tony did a theatrical double take.

"As you're someone who knows the Ten Rings personally, more than nearly anyone else," Tony glared at the phone for bringing _that_ up. But he kept listening, trying to think of why he was getting a horrible feeling about this. "We'd like you to give us some assistance on how best to rescue someone they've kidnapped." Phil said, waiting for some form of answer.

Tony nodded vigorously, only to stop once he remembered that Phil couldn't see him.

"I'll do whatever I can." Tony said immediately, despite what many would say, he _did_ have a heart. And Tony didn't believe _anyone_ should have to go through being held captive by the Ten Rings.

The torture they inflicted was bad enough on someone like him, but who was this other person they'd captured? He guessed, as it was SHIELD talking, that it was some top agent, able to hold their own while he made plans to get them out of wherever they were.

"What's the background info? Gimme all you got." Tony demanded, already going over how to do this rescue operation with style. (Gotta look good of for the fans.)

"Well we know where the girl's being held, and Director Fury would like you to give some tips on getting her out."

Tony blinked for a long moment, his genius brain caught up on what Phil said after a few seconds.

"A _girl_?" He said incredulously, before addressing the other issue Phil presented. "And some tips? No, I can do so much more than be some advice robot. Lemme go and blast into their stronghold, grab the lady, and get out. Easy as pie; well actually I've never made pie. But Pepper has, so how hard can it be?" Tony blinked, he was pretty sure he had been rambling.

"You can't." Phil said, and judging from Phil's amusement – Tony had indeed been rambling.

"Ah… but I think I can. You see, it's America. You know? Land of the free and all that jazz." Tony said, he needed to weasel the information out of Phil so he could rescue this girl. Hacking SHIELD would take too much time after all, and he wanted to know how to do this right now.

"So… a girl you say?" Tony fished for information.

"Yeah, bad business all that. The girl's name is Hali Potter, she's being held in some kind of temporary base in London. So no, actually it's not the land of the free. Potter's probably going to be moved in a few days." Phil said, being surprisingly forgoing with the information.

Oh… wait. Tony could have kicked himself just then, this was Phil Coulson. A professional spy, he obviously wouldn't just tell Tony this unless he wanted too.

Smiling lightly, smug he'd figured out someone of value Tony continued his not-so-innocent questioning. "Ahh… and where it London would that place be?" He questioned, smirk in full play.

"Pigmenhorn Avenue weird name I know, and the address is the most magical number. It's a very nice place… good for a vacation." Phil said, and now Tony definitely knew that there must be some reason why Phil wasn't being direct. Why not tell him to go get his suit and rescue the damsel? Instead of all this flitting around the questions and giving not-answers.

"Ah… that this girl. She's what? Twenty-seven? Twenty? Nineteen? Single?" Tony joked, and mentally cringed at that. Oops. Hopefully Phil wouldn't take it personally, unless he had a special lady friend… Tony's mind shot to that possibility. It could be true…. hmm… he'd need to find out with careful _subtle_ questions.

"Soooooo….you know her well? You ah…. partners in crime? You know. In love?" Tony said with a smirk, that wasn't as subtle as he hoped but it didn't matter. He was taking the stairs down two at a time – because no one has time for all those gleaming marble steps.

"That's disturbing it more ways than one Stark." Phil said, amusement slowly vanishing from his voice to be replaced by Serious-Phil. (Someone who Tony hadn't taken a liking to.)

"Jeez, that bad of a looker, eh?" Tony blurted out, not being able to help himself.

There was a small pause on the other end of the phone before – as though expecting Tony to do something rash – Phil continued it a slightly cautious tone.

"No, that's not it. The girl we're discussing is about six, too young for me." A small breathy huff of amusement was heard on the other end of the phone call, but Tony didn't care.

The phone in question had fallen from Tony's grasp in a rare show of complete horror.

There was a little kid with the Ten Rings.

There was a tiny little girl with the Ten Rings.

He repeated those faithful words in mantra in his mind. It was a horrifying prospect. Bad enough that a man, woman, or a teenager – heck, bad if _anyone_ were in the hands of the Ten Rings.

But a tiny young girl?

His Mark IV suit came crashing through the floor beneath him, and the parts connected to him like a second layer of skin. Quickly, piece by gleaming metal piece he donned his Iron Man suit.

"JARVIS? Call Pepper, tell her… I'm going to take a nice ol' vacation to London for a while. Make sure she knows that uh… it's very important." Tony said lamely, hiding something from Pepper would likely get him lectured and yelled at, he'd feel the wrath of her fiery temper when he got back.

"Of course sir. Are you sure you're risking it to lie, sir?" JARVIS asked, ever professional in its steady British voice.

"Yeah, yeah sure." Tony said, running off and crashing through his window. (He really needs to stop doing that, the window repair men were making a fortune off him.)

Behind him, on the floor was the long forgotten cell phone, and at the other end of the call. Phil was stretched out in his chair. A knowing quirk of the lips on his face.

"I deserve a promotion." He said with a tad of sarcasm.

"I just gave you one." Fury's deep voice came from behind him, ever serious.

"Another?" Phil said with a hopeful look.

Fury's mouth twitched into a smile.

"No can do Agent Coulson."

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Surrey, England, at Number 4 Privet Drive, Living Room. February 16** **th** **2011, 5:03 PM.**

Hali had vanished, the flowers were trampled, people were yelling, Hali had been kidnapped, and it was all very scary.

Private Drive was being taped off, witnesses were being questioned, and in the living room of Number 4 Privet Drive chaos was in the form of Peter's crazy friends.

Somehow the living room was still standing, how it was still not blown to bits was a mystery to Peter. But luckily the sickly brown and gray striped wallpaper didn't have as much as scratch. Peter twiddled his thumbs in a show of nerves as he sat on the puce floral patterned couch.

The moderately sized living room was now jam-packed with angry and anxious people, and that was without the Dursleys. (Who'd wisely abandoned ship, and went to the mall for the day. Trying to stay out of the way of a furious Potter family)

Lily was alternating between hysterical and determined (something truly horrifying to witness), James was switching from being freaked out or being desperate, and Sirius was just furious and vengeful. Remus was eerily calm, and intent on finding Hali. Whilst Peter was just very confused and worried.

All in all, it was turning out to be a pretty horrible day.

The Aurors had been called and were searching for the kidnapped girl, and it had been confirmed. Hali was certainly been kidnapped according to eyewitnesses.

Even the Muggle police had been called, because the person that did the kidnapping drove a van. That hinted towards Muggles, considering most wizards wouldn't even know how to make a phone call.

James was pacing back and forth in Number 4's living room, while Sirius was mumbling about blowing up whoever had kidnapped Hali.

Sirius had gone a tad insane at the thought of Hali being harmed, and personally Peter felt Sirius should get professional help.

Really, wasn't it overkill to continue blowing up someone's body once they'd already died? Because Sirius seemed to think that was a splendid idea, and Peter was very glad that he wasn't on the opposing end of Sirius's revenge. Luckily for Peter's safety, Peter hated violence and wouldn't dream of hurting anyone (he refused to kill anything bigger than a spider).

"Maybe… maybe we could just tell them not too – not too kidnap Hali again? And have the Aurors put the person in jail? So we'd all be happy…" Peter suggested meekly. As that sounded much better to him then brutally ripping out their intestines, like Remus calmly stated he would do. But Peter's peaceful idea was completely ignored by his homicidal friends.

Peter sighed, he should have listened to his dear mother and become friends with some nice stable people instead. Peter flinched away from Sirius as he burst into yet _another_ angry 'what-I'm-going-to-do-with-whoever-took-Hali' rant.

"Wait!" Yelped James very abruptly, causing Peter to squeak in surprise. James snapped his fingers, and something that could be considered a smile appeared on his face. Peter turned his startled eyes onto his crazy friend.

James hadn't attempted a smile since Hali had been abducted, so clearly James had finally lost his mind. Ready to fire-call St. Mungo's at any given moment (he had them on standby to take care of his friends since First Year), Peter watched warily as James did a creepy giddy dance.

"I still had the tracker on Hali!" He squealed, tugging at his hair with a truly maniacal expression. Lily stopped giving helpful ideas to Sirius on just how to take off the poor kidnapper's fingers and stared at James. She was starting to go red, a sign of anger that James didn't seem to realize for some reason.

"Isn't that great!" James crowed, not noticing that Lily-the-angry-honey-badger was about to attack.

Peter would normally warn his not-too-bright friend about this, but Lily was too fast. And besides, Peter couldn't help but think that he deserved it for all the stress he'd caused.  
"YOU IDIOT! YOU DIDN'T THINK TO MENTION THIS SOONER?! I CAN'TBELIEVE YOU!" Lily ranted, "YOU – YOU, I DON'T EVEN." Lily appeared at a loss for how to demonstrate how much she was irritated. "UGHHHHHHH!" Lily screamed in frustration, and the windows shatters. Peter sighed in disappointment, he had been so glad that he'd not be having to do damage control today. And judging by the steadily fraying rate of the ugly thick curtains, they'd be a lot of repairs to make.

Remus glanced up from a book called 'How to Rescue Your Kidnapped Friend's Daughter for Dummies' He paused for a moment, taking in the scene, and proving that he'd been listening all along, comments;

"I should eat you right now," in a deceptively mild voice.

James looked nervous, "Don't kill me!" He squeaked. "I have so much to learn! Like what an aeerooplin is, or what in Merlin's name a compooti is. And- and- and just how old Dumbledore is! The greatest mystery of all!"  
"Airplane, James. It's called an airplane and the other ones a computer James." Lily said tiredly. "And if you listened to me you'd already know what a computer is." She seemed to be purposefully ignoring the Dumbledore question.

James shrugged, "That's beside the point! I have a tracker on Hali, because I forgot to take it off when we went Valentine's shopping yesterday! So all I have to do is use the rune stones she hopefully still has, and voila! I can just follow the red line to her."

Peter cheered, glad that the St Mungo's Healers wouldn't need to be called on for his murderous friends.

At least for another year.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X -

 **In a giant scary warehouse, Hali's Jail-cell. February 16** **th** **2011, 7:54 PM.**

"Join us or die Potter! We need your powers, together we can rule the world. World peace is stupid, war is better. Causing a world war will nations to unite! Then we can rip out their friend's hearts in front of them, making them really scared! And –" The man stumbled in his wording, "And we rule over them all. Forever, in eternal glory we will be the victors! Going down in histo-"

"Nope." Hali said, shaking her head. "Nu-uh." She said again when he looked disappointed. Hali really didn't know at this point how many times they'd try to convert her to whatever weird cult they belonged to. The guy in front of her was the worst at convincing so far, and that was saying something.

When the first person failed to convince her with his melodramatic rant about world domination, they kept sending it more people to try. Again…. and again... And again they kept attempting to get her to join them.

But Hali really wasn't interested in eternal glory, she'd had that before from the Triwizard Tournament. Yep. Been there, done that. Maybe on a good day she'd join just to get a new experience. Then dramatically backstab whoever the cult and run off to the good guys (though at this point she's not really sure who those would be).

But right now, she was having a bad day. So she really didn't want too.

Besides, they weren't treating her nicely; her concrete jail cell that everybody was crowded in was proof of that.

The man trying to convince her looked personally offended, then there was a large bang, and dizzying sensation. "OW!" She managed to squeak, before she felt a ringing sensation. There was a flash of a familiar office in Hel's dimension, and then another delirious feeling.

"Really?" Complained Hali as she got up, only for another bullet to hit her head, and she died…. _again_.

The person who'd attacked moaned in horror as Hali just picked herself up from the floor with an annoyed look. "Can you ple-"another bang and she died, her body rag-dolling to the ground.

"-ase stop do-" four more bangs in a row as the panicked terrorist squealed like a pig when she got to her feet again, brushing off the lingering effects of death.

"ing that! For crying out loud lou-"

Machine guns opened fire on her, and flashes on pain wracked her small body and she died instantly, only to hop to her feet a moment later.

"LET ME FINISH SPEAKING!" She screamed in annoyance, bullets were painful – even if that pain only lasted a second until she died. But by now, these terrorists were really grinding her gears.

In the six or so hours she'd been here, all they'd done was give her cliché 'join us' speeches, ranting in other languages about people she didn't know. They tried to interrogate her; only to get really confused when she managed to twist their words into different questions. They feebly attempted to intimidate her with threats of torture (she'd laughed at, causing them to get creeped out, and thus they did not go through with that plan).

Now they were repeatedly killing her. Death was nauseating, not to mention _very_ irritating.

"Thank you _so_ much. Jeez, let me breathe." She said when they finally let her have a moment of peace. She took some deep breaths while glaring at the meek terrorists who were whispering to each other.

She blinked at them, suddenly noting there were more than before. Apparently when she was being murdered, backup had arrived.

"Is this a Threat Fifteen?" One of them whispered to another, frowning in confusion.

"No! It's definitely a Threat Twenty." The man's partner muttered with widened eyes.

Hali ignored them, still trying to figure out when they'd duplicated. Because really, with their camouflage (that she didn't understand, as she could clearly see them) military-esque outfits completed by black balaclavas (That covered nearly their entire face), Hali just couldn't tell them apart.

Her mind switched back to camouflage outfits, and she tried to figure out how they'd even hide in those clothes. Did they live in a jungle? She was sure they weren't in one right now, the distant hum of cars was telling enough. A mental image of these ridiculous looking men trying to hide behind a telephone pole in that getup appeared in her mind's eye. A disillusionment charm was so much better, or really any other method of magical invisibility.

But then again, these Muggle's weren't able to use those. Speaking of that, being kidnapped by Muggles was certainly embarrassing. She didn't see herself as too superior towards them, but really? Muggles? Hel would tease her about this for months, Hali gave a mental groan at that prospect.

She paused in her line of thinking, pondering how she'd gotten distracted so quickly.

She wisely shook her head to toss off her thoughts, going back to the situation at hand.

What she really needed right now, was Nargles. Then once she obtained her precious plushy, she'd be able to attempt escape. But she refused to leave any man behind… or cat in this case.

"Can I please have my cat? It's orange, fluffy… really, no one?" She stared out at her confused audience, trying to figure out how to persuade them. "I'll let you play twenty questions if you give me Nargles, that's my plushy by the way." She amended. Hali was evil and therefore wouldn't really answer their questions truthfully, but she couldn't feel guilty about it, these were cult terrorists after all.

Blank bewildered stares were her only response, and Hali sighed dramatically.

"Ugh. Fine, fine, I'll get it myself!" With that daunting choice of words, Hali send a wandless torture curse at the nearest terrorist. It was such an awful spell, that Auror's spent years training to overcome it. To learn not break within seconds, and spill all their dirty secrets.

To accomplish it wandless was impressive, though the reason for doing it without a wand was rather embarrassing. Though Hali could still feel the Elder Wands presence in her mind – it wasn't coming to her frantic summons.

Hali supposed this was because she hadn't banished it when she'd last used it, therefore it was still probably waiting in the middle of the sidewalk.

The whip of silver colored light came from her hand, the spell that not even Voldemort dared use. And the horrifying whip flashed through the air, hitting one of the masked terrorists in the stomach.

A gasp rippled the room, and everyone waited for something to happen.

The man had fallen to his knees was shuddering, as if he was trying not to make noise. Everyone next to him backed up, waiting for him to start screaming or to become possessed. One of the terrorists even covered his eyes with his hands.

"I didn't sign up for this! I just wanted to move out of mom's basement!" The cowardly cult member whimpered.

Hali rolled her eyes, she'd be watching with vindictive amusement when he cracked. Soon he would be spilling all his secrets to her, and no one could stop her! Hali giggled manically, only to wince when her normally evil laugh sounded adorable.

The man in the kneeling position couldn't take it anymore – of course he couldn't, Hali was surprised he'd lasted this long.

He let out a long, drawn out, horrifying noise in the quiet of the chamber Hali was kept in, and everyone winced (including Hali).

Because _dang_ , did that guy have an ugly laugh.

The tickling charm (yes, something you learned in First Year was classified as a torture method) weakened the opponent: caused them to be unable to move, breathe, or scream.

Hali would have used a more impressive spell, but that was the only offensive wandless spell she could manage.

Besides even with all that guy had done, Hali couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him. Because whoever that man was, he was _so_ getting fired after this.

Hali gave him a pitying look, before turning back to the other terrorists. Ready to give them the same treatment, only to have them start firing their guns at her again.

The usual nauseating feeling overcame her, and she appeared in Hel's office. She quickly saluted Hel, who'd just opened the door holding a coffee mug in her hand and was yawning. And Hali willed herself to the land of the living, her Master of Death powers caused her to return.

Hali groaned when she finally noticed the state of her clothes, there were bullet holes _everywhere_.

"I really liked this shirt!" she said indignantly, clambering to her feet again.

She ducked another flurry of bullets, and threw her hands up with irritation.

"I mean really! This shirt was expensive! And… oh no… you ruined my jumper as well. You people are complete prats!" She said, animatedly using her arms to express herself. "Mum's going to kill me! This was new as well!" Hali ranted, only to squeak and stop speaking when more bullets rained upon her.

With a startled 'eep!' she dived to the side.

"Bullies!" She complained, huffing out a breath of air while straightening up and trying to look like she hadn't made such a childish noise.

\- X - X - X - X - X - X -

 **A/N Well that was this chapter, its sixteen pages if you're curious (I always like knowing exactly how many pages are in a chapter). Please leave me your reviews and I'll personally try to respond to each and every one of you!**

 **I'll be updating ASAP, most likely you'll be getting a new chapter on Thursday. (So sorry for the long wait, hope it's good enough for your fancy!)**

 **IMPORTANT: If you want to know why SHIELD weren't just telling Tony to go and rescue Hali. That's because it's highly illegal for them to meddle in England's business. Especially if the reason you know what's going on in England, is because you have spies sneaking around. So they can easily say that Tony was just taking a 'vacation' over in London. And just-so happened to stumble across Hali in a predicament; that predicament called getting spawn-killed. :D**


	5. Chapter 5, Tony The Evil Dictator Robot

**A/N Hey! Here's another chapter just as promised!**

 **Just something to note, I will not be pairing Hali with anyone, as no matter how I do it, I'd be disturbed, because she's so much younger physically than anyone her mental age, and so much older mentally for anyone her physical age. Not only that, but she's immortal, meaning anyone she goes out with, she'd eventually outlive. And I'm not** _ **that**_ **cruel to poor Hali to do that to her.**

 **A BIG THANKS TO MY BEST FRIEND JOY OCEAN WHO'S ALSO DOUBLING AS MY BETA FOR THIS STORY!**

 **WARNING: There's blood, lots and lots of blood. (Not overly descriptive or anything. I'd wouldn't like to scare myself when I'm writing this at midnight)**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, or Marvel. Else I'd be making cameos Stan Lee style in all the movies, and be too busy running from insane fans (like myself) to be writing fanfiction.**

 **Chapter Five**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Hel's Realm, Hel's Office. Hel's clock is broken, so Hali doesn't know what time it is.**

Hali appeared yet again in Hel's Office, and feeling of vertigo swept over her. Hali gratefully fell into the fancy office chair that just appeared next to her. She'd just died yet again, and for once she decided to take a breather before going back.

Because jeez, were those weird cult members _extremely_ trigger happy. Hali had the unfortunate privilege to get a firsthand experience for just how much they liked making their guns go bang. So therefore, when she'd been killed the umpteenth time, she just didn't let herself go back into the Land of the Living. Instead she was relaxing in Hel's very tasteful gothic office with its dark wooden panels, carvings of roses, and elaborately done furniture.

Enough of being jealous of Hel's room, right now, she needed to get some things off her chest. And what better person to have a therapy session with then Death herself?

"You won't believe the day I'm having. Literally everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong!" Hali complained, huffing at the half skeletal figure of her best friend.

"Ugh, probably not as bad as mine." Hel complained, "We're out of ice cream in the Dead Cafeteria! My Grim Reapers are going crazy! They really like brain freezes, though I've yet to figure out the reason. As they don't technically have brains..." Hel trailed off with a thoughtful look, not noticing Hali was covered in blood (oh her poor shirt!), or just not caring.

"Luckily I still have coffee, or the Grim Reapers would be even worse than they already are." Hel lifted her coffee mug, which had bold black letters saying 'Feeling dead on my feet.' "Anyway, I'm just exhausted, how about you?" Hel did look very tired, she was slumped in her high backed chair, with her half open eye (her other eye was a creepy empty socket), thick black bags under her eye, and footie pajamas with scythes printed all over them.

"My day was so much worse than worse!" Hali said, feeling the need to express that her bad day was worse than Hel's. "I'm getting murdered every time I come back to life!" Hali exclaimed, throwing up her bloody hands in clear annoyance. "I mean really, it's one thing to do it a few times but, this is like the seventeenth time! Not only that, but my Elder Wand is missing, and I am really annoyed by this stupid cult!" Hali ranted, looking at Hali for sympathy.

"Hali, Hali, Hali," Started Hel wisely, taking a sip of her coffee. "It's called getting spawn-killed! Much easier to say then dying for the seventeenth time!" Then Hel's voice changed to a more pitying one. "Well, sorry to say I can't help you with that."

"Why not?!" Hali whined.

"Because, this is your first time being spawn-killed, and if you don't learn to fix your problems for yourself and I'm not around to help you, you'll gonna be in an even bigger mess next time! I won't be here forever you know…." Hali stated. This might have sounded wise, or perhaps upsetting, if it had come from anyone other than Hel. But as it was Hel, Hali just rolled her eyes, and pointed out a loophole in her explanation.

"But you do live forever, and so do I. We're immortal, that's like, and that's literally the _definition_ of forever!" Hali said exasperatedly, throwing up her hands.

Hel looked awkward at that, "I know I'm immortal, I mean, duh. But… I meant I might not always be able come to you." Hali raised her eyebrows, watching as Hel dug herself into a hole. "Actually, I can come to you basically anytime I want, it's just easier if you summon me, anyway…" Hel cleared her throat. "What I'm trying to say is, if I'm off on vacation while you're getting spawn-killed, I'm not getting out of my bathing suit to go get your out of that predicament. A predicament," Hel had to raise her voice of Hali's incredulous protests, "that you probably deserve for not paying attention or being more careful."

"You're no longer my best friend." Hali huffed irritably, glaring at her _ex_ best friend.

"Sure I'm not…" Hel said disbelievingly, "Anyway, think of this as revenge for your LOOSING MY ELDER WAND!" Now most people would probably faint if Death herself started yelling at them, but Hali wasn't most people. And instead of screaming back, she tried to pretend she wasn't feeling guilty about misplacing it.

"Sorry." Hali said uncomfortably, but Hel wasn't listening to her apology – too busy yelling to hear her.

"Do you have any idea how long it took it make that? I mean sure, in the myths it says I just made a plain ol' stick into a majestic wands. But _nooooooo_ , I had to send in papers to the Powerful Objects Committee. And those people are prats, they take so long to read and approve the papers. _Then_ after all that work, I've got to find a way to tell them why I want someone else immortal as well. And my only reason I had was just because I was lonely, and that's just plain embarrassing to tell someone! And, not only that, they watch as you enchant the objects to make sure you're doing it according to regulation." Hel seethed for a moment, glaring at Hali, before suddenly, her angry face turned into a mischievous look telling of revenge (at who, Hali wasn't sure). "Speaking of immortal, if you meet my dad, make sure to rub it in his face that you're immortal in not just age, but also physically so no one can ever properly kill you. He's been trying to make me do the same for him, but he's got too many 'I want to take over the world' tendencies." Hel made this sound like it was such a relatable thing, Hali couldn't help but giggle.

Hel laughed, looking pleased that Hali was happy again. "Sorry to burst your metaphorical bubble, but you've got to get back. I have an appointment soon."

Hali groaned, "Already?!" Hali complained ( _not_ whined, she was too old for whining and tantrums thank-you-very-much).

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **In a giant scary warehouse, Hali's Jail-cell. February 16** **th** **2011, 8:15 PM.**

Hali was sitting on the floor by now, eyes half lidded as she sat cross legged, waiting for them to start killing her again. These people who just didn't learn, because really, you'd think during the first fifty times they'd killed her they'd have learned she always came back? Well apparently they hadn't, as the cult members (or whoever they were) kept shooting at her, repeatedly.

Hali was trying to get some sleep. Hel had wished her on her merry way about seven minutes ago, and Hali had already temporality given up on escaping.

Her plan _had_ been to summon her invisibility cloak, and escape that way. Except then she realized they could still kill her when she was under it, only difference was that the cloak would get all bloody.

And blood stains were the _worst_ to get off things, something she'd learned after she'd violently murdered that Basilisk when she was twelve. Speaking of, it was pretty cute how her tween-self didn't understand how to get rid of snake blood yet (she should be worried that she found that sweet and innocent).

Hali yawned, jerking upward when she noticed one of the men was walking up to her very slowly.

When he noticed she was staring at him with those unnaturally green eyes, he squealed like Arnold, Ginny's pygmy puff, and fled back to the huddle of cult members.

Approaching her looked like this was the last thing he wanted to do, but (after an encouraging shove from another camouflaged man) he stumbled forward to her, nervously twiddling his fingers.

Hali watched him, waiting for him to do something, anything at all really to rid her of boredom. She supposed she could always tickle him into unconsciousness like the other guy if he tried to attack her. Speaking of the guy who'd been tickled, he was still unconscious, and Hali was a bit worried about that.

Eh, well he was probably okay…. okay-ish, at the very least.

The person who had been not-very-stealthily-sneaking was kneeling in front of her. Now (with scared blue eyes), he slowly reached out a hand, causing a few things to happen: Hali cracked her knuckles and tensed, and her kidnappers leaned forward, holding their breath.

The man squeaked with nerves, and quickly as lightning he slapped her on the cheek.

Hali gave him an unimpressed gaze, because with the force he put into that he might as well have been gently patting a kitten in praise.

The man swallowed harshly, his eyes (the only part of his face that she could see because of his balaclava) were wide and terrified. He hesitantly reached out a hand to slap her again, but Hali allowed her magic to crackle on her fingers, making him to scream a little girl on a roller-coaster. Actually, no, Hali was a little girl and even she didn't scream like that (although, to be fair she'd never gone on a roller-coaster).

Hali shook her head at the 'torturer,' he was yet another person who was most definitely getting fired later. Because really, how could someone fail at slapping a child, or at least someone who looked like a child?

Hali stood up to her full height, which wasn't as intimidating as she'd prefer. But it did the trick, causing the men-in-masks to freeze in place at their spot against the front wall.

Well, everyone but a single man with bulky shoulders, big muscles, and glaring dark eyes.

"Little Devil Girl." He said coldly, almost mockingly. "Stop your games right now, or else your little fingers will be introduced to a blender… and we'll rip out your cute eyelashes, and all your pretty red hair." he threatened, voice like icy spikes. The utmost conviction in his voice left Hali without doubt that he would indeed go through with his threat.

"How about no," Hali said, her face scrunched up at the very idea of her precious black hair being chopped off. She was having an ongoing contest with Hel on whose hair was better, and if that threat went through, she'd certainly loose.

"Too bad, because you're not in charge of us Little Devil Girl…" Dang, Muscle-Man's voice had an awesomely dangerous tint that Hali thought only Snape could do. "We are the ones in power, we are the Ten Rings…" Muscle-Man said, a smirk on his lips. And Hali couldn't help but be impressed, why hadn't they had this guy try to convince her to join them? Sadly, that was a question she'd likely never get the answer for.

"We're the most terrifying terrorist group you'll ever meet…and we will destroy you, you Little Devil!" The man finished, a sneer in full play.

Well, at least now Hali knew what they called themselves, but that didn't really tell her much about them. Except that apparently they were actually a terrorist group, and not a wannabe cult like she'd presumed.

But it still wasn't that much of a help to her problem, her problem being her limited repertoire of wandless spells.

Even after a year and a half or so of practicing wandless magic, she still hadn't been able to master many spells like Hel had. Most of her spells didn't even work as they were supposed to. An image of that grand piano appeared in her mind, and a brief memory of her Aguamentispell producing hot chocolate flashed through her thoughts as well.

Hali gazed at where the huddling terrorists were. They were blocking her exit, the iron bar door that was smacked on the far left on her small grimy cell. Hali had no idea where she even was, though she was crossing her fingers that she was still somewhere in Great Britain, as she would be hopelessly lost any other place. Her extended knowledge of Great Britain's landscapes came from an entire year of camping out in ridiculous, random locations. Such as in the middle of an Ireland cow field, where they'd decided right then and there to get some proper maps so they wouldn't accidentally apparate into a pig sty.

So, after that traumatic experience, and months of studying maps, Ron, Hermione, and Hali had all become experts with finding their way around Great Britain.

But if she was anywhere else, such as Japan, or America for instance, she'd be hopelessly lost. And wandless apparating was an extremely difficult and near impossible wandless spell to accomplish, so Hali wasn't even going to attempt to apparate home.

By now, the muscular man's speech seemed to have gained the support of the rest of the group, and they were gaining confidence. All the terrorists were looking as vicious as the Muscular-Man, except for one small guy. The short man timidly raised a hand over his head, and everyone stared at him incredulously.

He blushed hotly, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but here. "I, um… well actually Hydra has been voted more terrifying than Ten Rings." The guy said, his brown eyes scrunching up in a 'sorry about that' expression.

Muscle-Man spluttered indignantly, "No, that was only on _some_ poll websites, not with actual people. Besides, I thought we'd agreed that Hydra had gotten bots so they could repeatedly vote for themselves!" He said, his dangerous voice was gone, replaced with an annoyed one that didn't seem threatening at all.

"Actually, we were voted least scary by some guy named Stan Lee as well. You should do your research beforehand, ugh, Steven, you've gotta know these things!" The brown eyed terrorist rolled his eyes slightly.

"Why should I care about one person?!" Steven, the muscular man, growled.

"He's some sort of celebrity, wrote some pretty popular comics. Personally I never liked Aluminum Man or Captain Switzerland, but Stan's pretty darn famous." The brown eyed man said, wrinkling his face up.

"How dare you, this is why no one likes you Jimmy! Aluminum Man is the best! And the movies are so much worse than the comics!" Someone next to the brown eyed Jimmy exclaimed, and Hali watched in complete confusion as the entire group started talking at once. Each of them determined to show their own opinion of what character was the most awesome.

"SHUT UP!" Steven yelled, and everyone quieted "That...that doesn't matter." He had a putout expression, as though sad they weren't labeled most terrifying "We're scary, and we're in charge here!" Even though Steven sounded like he was convincing himself, the Ten Rings terrorists looked like they were getting excited again.

And so within seconds everyone reverted back to the 'let's beat up Hali' positions, slowly circling her like angry Thestrals, smirking cruelly as they twirled around her like ballet dancers.

"Um," Hali stalled, "oh look, a pegasus!" She pointed a finger at the iron door to her cell, but nobody so much as looked over their shoulder. The terrorists apparently didn't fall for her lies like her family did.

Hali was about to repeat herself, when she started blinking, just to make sure she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing.

Well, apparently her rescuers were here, and they weren't who'd she been expecting. Actually she'd presumed her family would storm the place with pitchforks and attack with terrifying battle cries.

But alas, no, instead there were a large clustering of Thestrals who were grouped behind her iron bar cell door.

"Um. I'm not kidding, now there's actually pegasi behind you. Man-eating pegasi." Finally, one of the more gullible twisted around, and screamed.

He screamed not because he could see the invisible Thestrals, but because the door was knocked off its hinges with a loud crash. Utterly destroyed by the storm of furious and vengeful man-eating pegasi.

The heavy iron door slammed into the terrorist, and the rest of the Ten Rings members all spun around wanting to see what the commotion was all about, only for them to quickly take a few stumbling steps back.

The Thestrals let the gunfire that was being sprayed bounce off their bodies so they weren't hurt, but there was a thudding noise as someone threw a grenade towards Hali.

Hali screamed in surprise, putting her arms in front of her face defensively, preparing to be exploded (something that had never happened to her). Only to cautiously lower her arms when she noticed that the grenade hadn't exploded. She blinked around, tensed up and ready to take cover at a moment's notice.

Hali stared at a particular Thestral who looked very suspicious. There was an exploding noise from the Thestral, and said man-eating pegasus burped up a bit of smoke.

During this, Hali made accidental eye contact with one of the terrorists, and for a moment they exchanged incredulous looks. But, both abruptly remembered they were on opposing teams at the same time, meaning Hali blushed and looked away sheepishly, while the terrorist giggled manically and shot his machine gun.

Hali would have died (again, she really shouldn't have turned her back to the terrorist) if it weren't for the Thestral that stepped neatly in front of her. The winged horse looked extremely smug, nostrils flared out, and chest puffed out smugly. The man with the gun just stared blankly at where the bullet seemed to bounce off air, and he squeaked like a rat.

The Thestral in front of Hali neighed loudly, and suddenly all the other Thestrals were glaring at the one poor guy. Well, now Hali knew for certain her creepy Thestral guard could communicate with each other, that's one mystery solved.

The man's gun fell from his sweaty hands, and he screamed as a Thestral breathed down his neck, warm air rushing down his spine.

The scream was cut off a few seconds later, and Hali daintily stepped out of the way from the spray of his blood, making a grossed out face as she did so.

Hali couldn't work up too much pity for these terrorists, not only because they were clearly evil, but she knew there was something after death.

After all, she'd seen the afterworld herself for crying out loud! So she understood that yes, there was something after death and therefore didn't feel too badly about them being murdered. The only pity she felt for them was that Hel would not be very nice with their soul's' final destination, considering Hel really got angry when people hurt Hali.

Hali hunched over, and moved out of the way of the brutally efficient Thestrals, because those Thestrals were determined to protect her at _any_ means necessary.

A Thestral who wasn't murdering terrorists gave her a look that reminded her of Molly Weasley, like a mother would look at their child. The Thestral neighed, and used its hoof to sketch a triangle, in a puddle of gooey blood.

Hali got the gist of what the skeletal demon horse was trying to tell her, and she summoned the invisibility cloak to her. The Hallow was slipped over her head, causing Hali to vanish from prying eyes.

Creepily, the Thestrals could clearly still see her, as their watchful white eyes followed her while she made a getaway to the far corner of the room.

Hali really wanted to get away from the terrorists that were screaming bloody murder, and she also wouldn't mind getting out of the splash zone for blood, not wanting to ruin her lovely invisibility cloak by shrinking it in the laundry.

Hali's back hit the wall of her stone cell, and she breathed a small sigh of relief when the Thestrals immediately took up guard to stop any Ten Rings terrorists from getting close to her.

Thestrals were incredibly dangerous creatures when angered, and apparently hurting Hali made them very, very angry. Or at least Hali guessed they were angry. Considering the way they munched on the grenades like candy, she would say they were mad and dangerous.

Arms flailing, the terrorists tried to run out, tried being the key word here. Every time one of them fled through the door, a cute little baby Thestral would easily murder them.

Hali shivered slightly, and not from the ruthlessly cold room. Because her favorite Thestral, whom she'd named Brynn, was happily chewing a leg while staring directly at Hali. Brynn's innocent expression was seriously creeping her out, and Hali tried to avoid eye contact with Brynn's blank white eyes.

Hali winced when a sickly crunch was heard clearly over all the screams, and shut her eyes. Deciding it was best to sit this one out, not because she was more than frightened of her normally friendly Thestrals… that was a ridiculous assumption to make.

X - X

Hali only opened her eyes a few minutes later, when there was near silence, and the walls were coated in red blood, sorta like wet paint.

Hali put a hand on the hem of her cloak, and tugged it off. Making her appear suddenly, looking a bit worse for wear as she walked cautiously forward.

She purposefully ignoring the bodies littered on the ground, which various Thestrals chowed down on. She also tried to ignore how in the distance, she could hear screaming gradually sounding farther away. Clearly one of the terrorists had been left alone, probably to spread the word not to mess with Hali, and Hali's spooky ghost-horse gang.

The thought they'd let someone live was truly terrifying, as it meant that the Thestrals were smart enough to come up with a plan like that and properly conduct it.

"Um…" Hali said awkwardly, scratching her head, feeling relieved that she didn't feel any blood in her hair. This was awkward, especially since that guy's annoyingly high-pitched screams were in the background.

"Hi there Thestrals!" She said, wondering what you were supposed to say to some man-eating pegasi who'd just murdered a bunch of terrorists to rescue you. This type of conversation was what should have been taught at Hogwarts, instead of making pineapples tap dance, something that she'd yet to find an excuse to use.

Luckily, Hali was saved having to have a one sided conversation with evil horses, by one of the larger Thestral's loud neigh.

Hali looked at the large beast, who had something odd in its mouth. Hoping it wasn't a body part of some kind, Hali cautiously went closer to get a better view of the orange thing.

It looked suspiciously cat shaped, and her first thought was that they'd killed someone's poor cute cat, and she'd have to apologize to the owner. Something she knew was difficult to do, and to explain, Hali unfortunately was speaking from experience here (Mr. Grilins parrot stood no chance against the hell horses). But then she noticed whatever it was, wasn't bleeding, and that it had a squished up face. Like It'd run directly into a tree trunk, and Hali stepped ever closer to get a better view.

"It's Mr. Nargles!" Hali exclaimed, finally realizing what the graceful Thestral had for her. "Ohmygoodness thanks-so-much!" Hali said, her words combining as she spoke so quickly. Hali ran as fast as she could without slipping in the blood puddles, determined to get to her precious plushy.

When Hali closed the distance between her and the Thestral, the death pony took a step forward, bowing its head to her. Letting the plushy it'd been daintily holding in its mouth go, having it fall into Hali's awaiting hands.

"Thank you! Oh Mr. Nargles, my precious Nargles!" She cradled her plush Nargles to her body. "I'm now going to call you Briella, yup I'm talking to you creepy Thestral!" Hali said with a bright smile that made the Thestrals coo oddly (how a Thestral could coo was beyond her). "And I hope you're a… um…" Hali deflated slightly. "Hopefully you're a girl then." She completed, making an odd face before laughing a bit at nothing in particular.

The Thestral nuzzled her cheek in glee, and Hali smiled, "I've got the coolest friends." She declared, and it was true. Her best friend and sister-like figure was literally Death, then she had a horde of man-eating pegasi to look out for her as well.

Oddly enough, she found the fact that both of her friends would kill for her sweet, and she found herself a disturbed by that realization.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **At a giant scary warehouse, in the air. February 16** **th** **2011, 8:20 PM.**

Tony crashed through the flat roof of the warehouse he was 'sneaking' into, finding himself in a long, dauntingly quiet hallway. The ceiling crumbled in around where he smashed through, and bits of rubble landed around him. Sort of like pieces of fallen popcorn in a movie theater, and just like at the movies, the concrete thudded to the ground loudly. So loudly, he was sure that the terrorists would come running towards him any second now.

And that was actually what Tony wanted to happen, then he could pick them off without having to search this large desolate warehouse to find where they were hiding.

But everything was still… calm even, and it unnerved Tony. He felt a flash of worry that he'd gotten the wrong building, it wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened. And, speaking from experience, it was very hard, and embarrassing when you had to explain to an elderly couple just why you'd broken down their wall.

But, apparently he'd gotten the right place (phew) because there was a high girlish scream around the corner.

He tensed up, stomach lurching (the more appropriate thing to call it would be butterflies, but that sounded much too girly for Tony's taste.) at why a little girl would be screaming with such bone chilling echoing scream.

His face hardened, and he charged down the hallway, ready to destroy whatever door blocked his way, like it was naught but a flimsy piece of wood.

The only issue was that someone met him first, running from around the corner the screams were from. Tony lifted his arms into an attacking position, his Iron Man suit ready to retaliate to whatever puny weapons they tried to use against him.

When Tony noticed the running man hadn't noticed him, he felt a little insulted. People just didn't ignore him, he was Iron Man for crying out loud! He noticed a little too late that his thoughts made it sound like he was whining, something quite frankly ridiculous. Bah, like he, _the_ Tony Stark, would ever whine!

The man who was hightailing away was in utter disarray, his balaclava that the Ten Rings always seemed to wear was missing, making his chiseled features very clear.

The girlish scream was coming from somewhere closer than before, and Tony's first thought was that was odd: He swore it was coming from around the corner, Tony's second thought was that the little girl was being carried over here, thus making the noise closer. And yet another one of Tony's thoughts was how bizarre it was that the man who was sprinting down the long, long hallway towards him had his mouth open in a scream as well.

Oh, wait a second.

Tony stared incredulously at the muscular man who'd make many ladies swoon, he looked strong, and maybe he _could_ look brave. But right now, he was giving the most banshee-like scream Tony had ever heard.

"Seriously?" Tony blurted out, and the man turned his head slightly. Now noticing who he'd missed while he ran from whatever thing that was so utterly terrifying, that he'd been acting like a screaming goat.

Surprising Tony yet again, the man ran _towards_ Tony – and this person was unarmed. No way to defend himself against the notorious Tony Stark.

What was even going on here?

The terrorist quaked at his knees, shuddering and whimpering and – _were those tears in his eyes_?! Tony stared at him aghast, not for the first time very happy no one could see what expressions he made while he wore his fancy mask (he always had the best poker face in his suit).

Tony's eyes bulged when the terrorist hugged Tony's leg, and Tony tried shaking him off. But the guy must have claws or something, because he stuck there like glue.

While Tony was trying to figure out how he'd gotten so distracted that he had someone hugging his leg, the terrorist was busy whimpering various incomprehensible sentences.

"Tell me what's going on." Tony's demanding voice came out in his awesome (if he said so himself) robotic voice.

"There's a devil child! Save us! Save us! We-" The man stopped talking only because Tony had finally gotten the guy detached from his leg. But, oops, Tony had 'accidentally' shook him off with so much force, he went flying through the air. Right down the echoing hallway, and directly into thick stone wall, where he stopped moving, and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap of limbs.

Tony shrugged his shoulders in a 'what can you do' manner, and charged down the hallway. Clearly that guy was drunk, because really? Why else would someone be as stupid to hug Iron Man, hater of terrorists, if you were a terrorist yourself?

Tony skidded around the corner of the corridor and made an odd choked noise. There was a long hallway with rooms in front of him. One of these rooms had clearly been converted into a jail cell, and worst of all there were large splashes of blood splattered on the floor outside the door.

Tony, unlike most who'd run away from the blood, started running even faster. His heart sunk, this girl clearly couldn't be alive in there was that much blood everywhere.

He stopped just a few feet away from the door, dreading what he'd see inside. He slowly walked forward, noticing that the door was smashed inwards.

He walked in front of the door, blasters ready to kill these evil people who'd murdered a child. Only to freeze, staring in complete shock at the bloody room, and very-much-alive little girl.

The little girl in question was talking to the air quite happily, and Tony was aware that his mouth had fallen open in shock.

He made a whining noise when his eyes flickered upwards, seeing a torso dangling midair. It looked like it was being eaten by some horrifying invisible creature. Tony readied his arms, he would try and protect the miraculously alive girl at any cost.

Tony's gaze was drawn to another floating limb, something resembling an arm, that was slowly vanishing in chunks. The girl was clearly going to need therapy to get over this, and he would gladly pay for the sessions.

The small girl turned around to face him, and Tony made another choked noise. The girl (whose name he'd forgotten by now), had black hair which, stuck up in gravity defying places, had an odd curl to it as well. She also had unnaturally vivid green eyes, Tony knew for a fact that color green was genetically impossible without having something done to them. The little girl was smaller than he'd expected, somehow it hadn't gotten into his mind just how young she was.

But that wasn't what made him choke on his own spit, no it was the tattered shirt covered what looked suspiciously like bullet holes. But his scientific mind found that impossible, as she didn't have so much a scratch on her.

In her dainty (she was so tiny and cute) arms, a fluffy plushy was clutched to her chest. The orange cat plushy had blood from the little girl's shirt seeping into it, the tear in its foot leaking soft cotton.

The girl herself had an alarmed expression on her face, and Tony generally had no idea what to say right now.

"I can explain!" The little girl blurted out, before she halted mid breath to stare at him with an inscrutable expression.

"Oh Merlin! It's a robot. It's a giant robot. What on earth do I do with a robot?!" The cute girl ranted nervously, and Tony cocked his head to the side in bewilderment.

The little girl, who'd he'd been prepared to rescue looked to the air next to her for assistance. Tony was getting genuinely worried for her sanity, had the torture they'd inflicted been that bad?

As Pepper had said countless times, if Tony was worried for someone's saneness, then something was very wrong.

Tony paused. They'd clearly used psychological torture, hence the injured toy, and the terrified expression on her tiny (he wondered if he could keep her) face. Maybe they'd covered her with blood, so they could freak her out? How else would she be that bloody, while looking none the worse for wear?

Well, Tony could ask her that after he took her out of here, away from eerily vanishing body parts.

"Hi tiny girl!" Tony greeted, practically charging into the red splattered cell to grab her, and flee.

"OH MY GOSH THE ROBOT TALKS!" The little girl exclaimed.

"Yeh, that's a thing I can do." Tony said, walking cautiously forward, trying not to step in any of the blood, then he'd have to clean his suit later, and that was always annoying.

"It talks." She repeated faintly, looking at him in growing horror. "Do you have emotions?" She asked him breathlessly, and Tony gave her a puzzled look.

Was she messing with him? He knew for a fact nearly everyone knew about Iron Man, it was only the biggest news of the past year or so.

"'Course I feel emotions!" Tony said, getting so distracted by the enigma of a girl that he slipped on the suspiciously wet red floor, falling and nearly landing on his butt.

The girl stared at him blankly, before an array of emotions flashed across her face, and she looked to be concentrating a great deal.

While the girl seemed to be having an internal battle, Tony clambered to his feet, making a face no one could see inside his helmet.

"It talks. It feels emotions…" The girl ended up repeating, sounding even fainter. And Tony was starting to think she was spouting nonsense about robots, because she was really exhausted. Tony stared at her. He'd forgotten how old Phil said she was, but didn't young children take naps or something?

"Hey, little girl, come with me and you can take a nice long nap! Ok?" He said uncomfortably, not used to dealing with young children at all.

The child meanwhile, was slowly backing away from him.

"Uhhhh." The girl said, looking awfully confused about what to do, before it looked like something registered in her mind. "Don't call me a little girl!" The child said indignantly, and Tony gave her an appraising look towards her very small figure.

"But you're a little girl, in fact, your tiny hands are adorable and I really want to hug you." Tony said, something that in his mind was completely socially acceptable to say.

"Oh you're one to talk, pipsqueak. Does your girlfriend get upset that she has to lean down to kiss you?" The little girl snapped, raising her eyebrows at him in an imperious way.

Tony gave an odd gasping laugh, he'd just got roasted by a six (possibly five) year old kid.

"Ouch… shots fired." Tony said, giving her a look of approval that the girl couldn't see.

"WAIT." The girl cried suddenly, "Did I just make fun of a robot?!" She said incredulously, flailing her arms in clear surprise. "And, and do you have a girlfriend?" The girl (whose named Tony really needed to find out), said, looking like she was dreading the answer.

Tony paused, technically he and Pepper weren't official, but they sure acted like it.

"Yup." Tony said confidently, "Got a girlfriend."

To his bewilderment the girl abruptly leaned backward in a way that stated 'I need a breather', his confusion coming from the fact she was leaning against air.

Tony rubbed his eyes and the next second the girl wasn't leaning against invisible walls, to his relief. Instead she was looking at him with a horrified expression.

"How are you even into girls?" She blurted out, hands coming up to the sides of her face in a 'how does any of this make sense' way.

"Well, I don't swing that way…" Tony said, trying to figure out how to explain gender preferences to a tiny child.  
"What the Hel's Realm?! I don't understand what's happening right now! HOW CAN A ROBOT SWING ANY WAY?!" She practically screamed, and Tony gave a small start when she started _petting_ the air next to her, looking like she was trying to relax herself.

"I'm not a robot." Tony said, wondering why the girl was so adamant on that.

But, the girl just gave him a condescending smile – something you'd give a small child who believed in magic.

"Sure you're not," The girl gave him another look. "Anyway do you even understand the implications that a robot can swing? Like, at all? It's, it's...well, it's not possible? Right? The implications are scarier than Thestrals being as intelligent as them are! Sorry Brynn." The girl added, motioning towards the empty air next to her with an apologetic look. Much to Tony's growing bemusement at this girls insane actions.

But the ranting girl was giving Pepper a run for her money with dressing down Tony, as she kept talking. "Wait, of course you can't understand implications! Because you're a _freaking_ robot!" The girl huffed, Tony gave an odd squeak when his gaze fell upon the concrete wall behind her, which was slowly melting.

"Oops." The girl said, looking awkwardly at Tony. "You're a robot, so I guess it doesn't matter if I did accidental m…." She paused mid speech, and made a contemplative noise. "I didn't even know I could still do accidental….." She stared at him as she trailed off, before gasping. Suddenly, she staring at Tony with such intensity with her emerald green eyes, that it creeped him out.

"Oh I get it, I think! Your remote controlled, so it's just someone talking through your voice box or something, oh, ok. Phew." The girl looked extraordinarily relieved by her new insight.

"No I'm not!" Tony protested, his suit was so much cooler than just a fancy remote controlled prosthetic. "I don't like UAV's, so nope! I'm a person," The girl gave him another look, and Tony started getting annoyed. "No really! I swear I'm real, not a robot. I'm a millionaire genius man in a suit!" Tony would have taken down his helmet visor to prove it, if it wasn't for the fact that the floating torso had finally vanished completely.

Tony could have sworn he heard a small burp from somewhere in the air, and Tony cursed himself under his breath for getting so distracted.

"Ok little girl, whadda I call ya?" Tony said, closing the distance between them, and easily lifting the light child into his arms.

"Hey – Let me go!" The girl cried crossly, her feet wildly tried to run on the air, a most disgruntled expression on her face.

"Sorry-not-sorry!" Tony said mercilessly, lugging the stubborn child out of the bloody, body filled room.

The child huffed loudly, but stopped complaining after having a short, and completely silent conversation with the air next to her.

As Tony jogged down the hallway, the girl securely held in his arms, he could have sworn he'd heard another set of footsteps, footsteps bizarrely like a large animals.

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 **A giant scary warehouse, in a very big hallway, kind of like the ones at Hogwarts. February 16** **th** **2011, 8:31 PM.**

Hali was being stolen away by a robot, and not just any robot, but a robot who really needed a reality check that he (it? She? Who knows) wasn't a human.

She was hoping against hope that it was someone speaking through it, otherwise she was incredibly scared that artificial intelligence had _preferences_.

A brief image of the world overrun by brightly colored robots, who had wanted to rule the world because they were convinced they were humans sprang to her mind's eye. Hali tried to stop thinking such pessimistic thoughts, maybe the robots would be nice? Well, Hali doubted that, if Dudley's video games taught her nothing, she knew that the robots _always_ wanted revenge on their creator.

Hali had stopped weakly struggling against the strong Gryffindor colored robot. The robots gaudy paint job would've caused even Sirius do a double take. The reason she'd given up so quickly was because the Thestrals trusted whoever his metal robot was being controlled by.

"I'm Hali by the way!" Hali piped up, looking curiously down the long corridor they ran down, Hali being tousled around as he took gigantic steps. The robot-thing seemed to think they were in some sort of danger, and Hali supposed he didn't know that all the terrorists were dead.

Well, all except that one guy who'd run away screaming.

Oh wait, never mind that, Hali had just caught sight of said terrorist slumped against the wall. Considering Hali could logically guess that the robot carrying her had done that, he was probably dead.

"Good to know peanut." The robot said, and Hali just grumbled in response, she was starting to get worried that it wasn't remote controlled, meaning it obviously was an actual robot, because what else could it be?

Hali was greatly disturbed that artificial lifeforms were so smart now, as someone who was a big fan of magic, she hadn't followed technology back in her day. But she knew it wasn't as sophisticated as everything was now, it was weird how many people had their faces stuck in their phones as they walked.

When she'd first been out in the Muggle world, she'd thought they were being mind controlled by those small rectangles. How else could they so easily dodge a telephone pole, while playing a game on their little smart phones?

Shooing away those thoughts, she wondering if the robot would take her back home. Hopefully it did, she really needed to feed Bob his dinner by now, or at least she thought so. Her watch had been broken a few hours before by the mean terrorists, so her sense of time was in great disarray.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the two charged down the hallways, and Hali wondered what to say to a robot who might eventually take over the world.

"Um… Just so you know, all the terrorists are dead. So don't worry about that…" Hali said helpfully, the robot snorted.

"I gathered that much." The robot said, and Hali could picture it rolling its eyes.

"Oh… well…. Um…. Yeh. How was your day?" Hali questioned awkwardly, but she didn't give the robot a chance to respond. "I mean, my day kinda sucked, I'm really hungry actually." Hali said, and now that she mentioned it she was starving.

The robot gave a weird laugh, and Hali made an odd face, pondering if the robot was attempting to become even more human, by learning how to express human forms of amusement.

"Your laugh was decent, could be a bit better though." Hali mentioned, unsure why she was helping a robot who was probably going to use her input to learn how to cackle manically, like any good evil villain could.

"So, bite-sized, are you always this judgmental?" The robot quipped, and Hali giggled slightly.

The robot cooed, and Hali stopped laughing again, trying to figure out just _how_ it could make that noise.  
"You're cute, I'm going to ask Pepper if I can keep you!" The robot declared, and Hali nodded solemnly. The robot had most likely recently learned about pets, and wanted to impress her with its knowledge.

"Very good, yes. Keeping someone with you, and caring for them is what we humans called a ' _pet_ '," Hali taught, and she wondered if this was what parenting was like, teaching your child information they could later use to enslave all of humanity.

If so, she could understand why Lily was always so protective of her.

The robot stumbled mid stride, as its head twisted down to the small child in his arms, staring at the girl for a moment, before the robot looked back up and continued jogging down the corridor.

"Yeah, well the only type of pet I want, is a –" The robot stopped himself, and Hali was generally surprised a lightbulb didn't appear over its head.

"Right, no inappropriate jokes." The robot said, and Hali was really wanting to know what the robot's 'name' was.

"What do your creators call you?" Hali questioned, making sure to pronounce everything carefully so its sound detectors, or whatever it used to detect noise, could hear what she said.

"Damn-" the robot started, "I mean, dam, like the wall, not the… curse, I mean…. errr, don't tell anyone I told you that. Ok Thumbelina?" The robot said awkwardly, somehow not mentioning its name in its rambling.

"Um, ok…. Sure…. nice save by the way Not-A-Robot." Hali said, and the robot laughed.

"Have I mentioned how cute and funny you are?" The robot said, and, seeing Hali's expectant look _finally_ gave a name.

"Ok then, I'm Tony, Tony Stark. Billionaire, genius, the best dam-" He caught himself again. "Shi-" Tony the robot started, then he realized he was about to curse the fact he nearly cursed, and stopped himself.

Hali just cocked her head to the side and gave him an unimpressed look, that she'd mastered by giving it too Sirius every time he made a pun on his name.

"I mean, walls. I'm the best god WALL, superhero around." Tony said, as they reached a spot in the hallway where the roof was caved in. "Da- I MEAN WALL, am I bad with kids or what?" Tony said, more to himself than anyone else.

Hali nodded sagely, "Your programmers should program you with better social skills. I think you've got a virus or something, I didn't even know robots knew how to curse until today!" Hali said, in a voice that stated just how creeped out she was by that fact.

"Oh come on kid, how many times do I have to say, I'm not a robot!" Tony yelped indignantly, and Hali chuckled, it was so darling how determined the weird robot was about that.

"Sureeeeeeee" Hali drawled out, purposefully mimicking Snape's voice.

"No, really I am! And I'll prove it too you! I will! I'm a man, in a suit, I really don't know how you don't already know this, like really!" Tony declared stubbornly, and Hali just nodded, a disbelieving look on her face.

She wasn't going to be too harsh on the robot, if she came on too strongly, Tony might just go insane from learning his life was a lie, and try to take over the world a few years earlier than he was planning on.

Brynn the Thestral (who was tailing after Hali with the rest of the Thestrals), smacked herself in the head with her hoof, in a parody of a facepalm.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, Pigmenhorn Avenue, The sidewalk. February 16** **th** **2011, 8:37 PM.**

Peter gave an annoyed squeak when Sirius's leg shoved him into his thigh, and he shifted uncomfortably.

If anyone saw them now, they'd rub their eyes and think they'd eaten something funny for dinner. Because it wasn't every day you saw a bundle of adults all squished together on a bright blue bicycle.

James shifted his hands on the steering wheel, making Lily shift, and Peter made a noise of distress when Lily's foot accidentally kicked into Sirius, as it caused Sirius to bump Peter further off the end of the bicycle.

"This was a horrible idea." Remus said, voicing what they'd all been thinking from his unsteady perch.

"Well, no one knew how to drive a car, what else were we supposed to do?!" James countered, defensive of his not-so-brilliant idea to steal a teen's bicycle.

"I still don't see why we couldn't have just apparated in, grabbed Hali, and left." Peter said, no matter how many times the group explained why, he didn't understand why they were wasting their time on a dangerous bicycle.

"Peter…" Lily's irritated voice came from above him, "This is the last time I tell you, ok?" Peter nodded hurriedly, time had not made Lily more relaxed, if anything she was even more dangerous. Practically vibrating with pent up energy, ready to become a human tornado of disaster, and destroy everything in the path of her and her daughter.

And Merlin, if Peter would dare make her angrier than she already was, she might just explode.

"Well, the way the runes connected to Hali's Rune Stone work, is that her Rune Stone is connected with ours. We see a red line connecting us to Hali if we hold the Rune Stone, but the issue is that we can't see the _end_ of the red leash. And if you don't know where the line leads, we can't apparate! Apparating to an unknown location is impossible, people have tried doing it for years to no success." Lily explained impatiently, getting so worked up she bounced on James shoulders.

The shoulders of which she was perched on precariously while the bicycle squeaked and wobbled along the avenue's sidewalk.

Peter still didn't understand her explanation, probably because the entire time she was speaking, he was being distracted. Distracted by thoughts of how impossible it was for them all to be on the bicycle at the same time.

James was steering the bicycle, Lily sat on his shoulders, looking like some disturbing bird of prey. In front of them was Remus, who sat awkwardly on the handlebars, making frightened noises every time James changed directions. Sirius was sharing the small slice of seat with James, while Peter clung to Sirius's back like a demented koala.

All in all, they looked like a bunch of clowns trying to fit into a tiny car. Except they weren't clowns, and therefore weren't trained in the art of squishing into impossible spaces together.

There was a silence as they neared the building, the building where the faintly glowing red leash led towards.

The only noise in the otherwise deserted road was the faint sound of cars a whiles away, the deserted street with abandoned factories, and warehouses was closed off by the police. Luckily for them, a simple Muggle Repelling charm made the police look the other way when they tottered in on their bicycle.

They squeaked onward, the bike wobbling the entire time as the very uncomfortable group slowly to an unsteady stop.

James put his stiff legs on the ground, and in complete silence, the entire group started getting off the bike.

Lily was the first to hop off, still humming with energy she flew through the air and land with a roll. The boys looked at her with jealousy, as somehow Lily was the only one without stiff, sore legs from the long journey.

"Ugh, Peter you get off now, 'cause you're in the back so it's easiest for you." Sirius said, wiggling to get him off his back and causing Peter to slowly sink downward, off the bike, until he landed with a painful thud on the concrete sidewalk.

Sirius, in a much more dignified manner, took his hands off James' waist, and clambered onto wobbly legs, nearly falling from the sudden weight on his unused feet.

Remus slipped forward and off the handlebars, and, like Lily, he managed to neatly land in a bent position.

The bike wobbled even more from the sudden loss of weight, and James stood up, cracking his back and stretching out, ignoring that the bike that had fallen to the floor beside him.

"Let's go!" The energetic Lily said from where she was bouncing around, and the entire group sluggishly followed after Lily's confident strides.

There was a pause, and James made a noise that was a combo of horror and distress. The red leash was moving now, it was moving –

"Up?" Peter questioned, he was craning his neck upwards, trying to figure out how on earth Hali would be flying.

Their question was answer when a Gryffindor robot-like thing shot up into the sky, in its arms was a small figure with distinguishable black hair flowing in the air.

The red and gold metal man started soaring relatively low, and they could hear a whoop of joy from Hali, and her laughter.

"AFTER THEM!" Lily cried, and they gave loud war cries, the friends charging after the tiny figure of Hali.

James picked up the bike, and sat on it, face set in determination to rescue his daughter. Remus got a boost from Lily to get onto the handles, and Lily crawled up James back, like a monkey. Peter clung to Sirius yet again, and they all had the most vicious and determined expressions, that begged for someone to attack them.

"GO!" Lily cried, pointing a finger towards the red line that would lead them to her precious daughter.

The bicycle squeaked, and ever so slowly it wobbled forward, gaining speed with the help of James's furious pedaling.

It made it about twenty feet, before the entire thing tottered, and fell onto his side. Taking the surprised passengers with it in its fall to failure.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **The European Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. February 16** **th** **2011, 8:43 PM.**

A ways away, the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad looked up in surprise when one of their detectors twirled away, the name Halimeda Potter ingrained on it, along with an update of her location. The way that the magical detectors worked, was that they would detect uncontrolled magic, and give a location for where the person was, as long as they were in Great Britain.

"Huh," said one of the men, they'd all presumed the young Hali wasn't going to be a witch, as she'd never shown any signs of Accidental Magic as of yet.

"Waittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!" hollered a woman, staring with squinted eyes at the ingrained name. "She's the girl who the Aurors are trying to find! Remember?" the woman said with a gasp, and the entire group shared wide eyed looks.

"She's the one who they came down here to see if she'd done any accidental magic when she was kidnapped? Right?" The woman, who'd accidentally stepped in front of one too many memory spells, said with her usual forgetfulness.

"Well then, we've got to tell the Aurors, right?" another man, the main Obliviator of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, said.

"Of course we're telling them Arnold, don't be daft!" another man said with an eye roll, and the group gladly ditched their stations, tugging on overcoats as they fled the DM-AM, or Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.

They were happy to do something of real use for once, instead of just checking up on families every time they accidentally made a teacup float.

X - X - X - X - X - X -

 **Well, that's a wrap for this chapter! Its TWENTY-TWO pages long, that's why it took so long to make. Sorry about the wait by the way! But, hopefully you've enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!**

 **Please leave your constructive criticism in a review so I know how to improve. If you didn't see anything wrong with it, sure just tell me what you think of it and what parts you liked the most so I know what everyone is interested in. And feel free to pressure me into making a new chapter sooner, I'm guilty of getting caught up with my life as you can tell. ._.**

 **I'll be uploading my new chapter, hopefully in the next couple of days, but no promises. Its very time consuming to write these, as this probably took eight (ish) hours to write, then I got to go over it, go over it again, go over it again, write some more, then I send it to my beta.**

 **Joy Ocean says, "Its twenty-two pages long! What do you want me to do, work 3 hours straight?!", When I said what I want the due date to be.**

 **(Joy's been busy and been sleeping a lot lately, but Joy's very thorough. Blame Joy for the late update.)**

 **(And I, Roserayrose says it really weird that Joy is talking about herself in third person…)**

 **PLOT ISSUE: For why Hali is suddenly able to do Accidental Magic, something I clearly stated she couldn't do with her wand, is because previously she'd always had her wand with her, as her wand was always a part of her, and thus always with her.**

 **So without it, her core is a bit unstable, so that's why she's suddenly capable of doing Accidental Magic.**


	6. Chapter 6, Hitchhiking

**A/N So sorry it took a couple weeks to make this, busy life was busy (My computer gave me a Blue Screen of Death) but that's no reason to not update, and for that I plead guilty**

 **IM SO SORRY.**

 **ALSO, I got a HUNDRED AND FIVE REVIEWS?! WHAAAAAATTT?! That. Is. So.** _ **Amazing**_ **!**

 **Thanks to everyone who favorited this and followed! I LOVE YOU ALL! :D**

 **NOW ON WITH THE STORY!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, or Marvel, and uh… um… Well, it seems I've run out of jokes to put in the disclaimer (Oh the horror!).**

 **WARNING: Tony's personality.**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, A Dirty Alley. February 16** **th** **,** **2011, 8:45 PM.**

Tony landed rather dramatically a few dozen streets over. In all actuality, he had been aiming for a nearby park, but, he was truly awful at judging landings when he went so fast, and it was nighttime by now, so he didn't think he could be blamed.

And fast they had gone, whizzing out of the abandoned warehouse as quickly as he could without endangering Hali.

Speaking of Hali, he took a peek to check his package was still with him.

Hali, who was under his robotic arm like a loaf of bread, smiled, her eyes wide with delight.

"Can we do that again?" Hali said, somehow making the question like a statement.

"No, no, we're not doing that again." Tony replied distractedly, trying to get his visor down. Unluckily for him, JARVIS was ignoring him in favor of scanning the facial recognition Tony had built in his suit. JARVIS was attempting to try to find out all information he (Tony liked to assign genders to his AI) could about Hali, so they could return her home.

In the meantime, Tony planned to take the little girl he found to his house in California, thinking that this was along of the lines of picking up a stray, and not even realizing that this was _not_ something socially acceptable,

Tony turned to Hali, and lifted his arm slightly so she could free herself of his hold.

"Yes we are, I want to fly again!" The stubborn girl said in an _adorable_ British accent, managing to look determined. How she did that was anybody's guess, considering she was having difficulties climbing down from him due to her short size.

Tony tried not to squeal, he really did, so he was pretty proud he managed to tone his squeal down to a muffled squeak.

"Are you ok?" He asked, coughing to hide his unmanly squeal, and wondering why she wasn't crying.

Weren't tiny humans supposed to be emotional like that?

Or as least, that's what he'd heard from the internet, though to be fair, a place where cats became famous for looking sad might not be the best of sources.

Hali rolled her eyes, and did one of her 'You're not worth my time to answer that' looks, a look he was quickly becoming familiar with. Again, Tony was reluctantly impressed how she gave off that look, even after _just_ managing to climb to the ground.

"Yes Tin-Man, I'm fine!" Hali snapped, Tony nodded in relief, his hand twitching the only sign he'd even heard the insulting nickname (Because it was not _tin_ , _tin_ was amateurs work! He was a seasoned professional, and his suit was gold titanium alloy, _thank you very much_!).

"Well actually, no, I'm _not_ ok." Hali then added as an afterthought.

Apparently her goal was to give him a heart attack with the things she sprouted about.

" _What_?!" Tony cried, and his heart leapt his throat (Odd, how it still did that, even with shrapnel trying desperately to pin his heart up like a voodoo doll). "Where does it hurt, what's wrong?!" He exclaimed, lifting her up and causing her to stop picking at the quickly drying bloodstains on her sweater.

Hali, being spun around in his arms as he searched for any fatal wounds on her body, inexplicably snickered (Weren't small children supposed to giggle?).

Tony froze, and stared at her confusedly. If she was laughing, it couldn't be that bad, surely?

"I'm _not_ ok, because you won't take me on another flight." Hali said plainly, giving him another condescending look.

Tony sagged with relief, and felt his heart rate go back a nice, safe speed, returning back to his chest (Where is _should_ stay, notgoing and hiding up in his throat).

"Oh that's good, you know, little chipmunk –"

"HALI!" Screeched Hali indignantly, and the look she gave him was one that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand at attention.

"Yeah, whatever, so, Hula," Tony grinned at the cute indignation on her face, not to be deterred by a single glare, no matter how bloodthirsty. Because in the end, she still looked really cute, or at least, to Tony, in her mind, she seemed to see herself as a god over all.

Maybe her parents wouldn't mind if he kept her, he thought, if not, he could always give them some money to spend time with her, take her to the park or something. Like one would a dog, or a cat.

It could be attributed to the accent that made Tony like Hali, maybe it was because she was nice, and with a kind heart. It could be supposed that Tony had a maternal instinct (Ha-ha-ha-ha, that's – that's cute to even think of, but _NO_.), another guess can be made that Tony simply loved all children (That was complete fantasy, a good number of young children were horribly bratty, or Tony just found uncomfortable to talk with).

But, more likely it was that Hali was sarcastic, and had such an air of 'bring it on' (A delicate way of saying she an over confident sassy girl who seemed like she would easily be able to seek revenge in many, many dangerous and vicious ways.) that Tony didn't feel so bad teasing her, or treating her more like an equal, well, as equal as he treated anyone.

The entire mental rant contemplation went down in under three seconds, and he continued his sentence like nothing happened. "You know you're not supposed to freak out your saviors, right? It's a jerky thing to do. I mean, come on, a thank you would be ok, maybe some groveling to me, making an altar and praying to me, or some money, because you can always do with some of that. But right now? Some wine would do wonders right now, if you could whip some of that up." Tony said, not even realizing that any other child would have no idea what he was on about.

But, luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look on it, Hali wasn't a normal child. So she understood what he was going on about just fine.

"My savior? _You_ , my _savior_?" Hali said, in a bizarre mixture of irritation and delight.

"Yes." Tony said simply, there wasn't much to say, after all. He was the hero, plain and simple, if he wasn't the hero, he would have made his suit a more villain-y (Yes, he was aware that wasn't a word, but he also didn't care, he was Tony Stark, he could make up any word he wanted.), such as… A nice scary villainous green, or an intimidating bronze color. He could even do a fake rust pattern on his suit (He would never stand for any _actual_ rustiness, so it would have to be fake.), just so people would know that he was _clearly_ the evil guy.

Because, wouldn't it be just _so_ annoying, if the villains were the same color as the protagonist? Like, for instance, Tony would be awfully confused if he was fighting some people dressed in silver, and someone on his own side was silver as well.

So no, he would never settle for something like that, after all, he was all about style. And if everyone was too confused by who was good, and who was bad, no one would appreciate how epic he was.

Tony came back to reality when Hali spoke again, "I had it under control." Hali declared dismissively.

Tony cleared his throat, feeling relieved that no one would _ever_ know about his disturbingly detailed plans for what he'd do if he was the villain.

But, once what she had said impacted his mind, he did a comedic double take.

"Oh really? That's what you like to think? Well, sorry, Princess, but, unless 'under control' is you –" He lightly tapped a metal finger on her head, "–being surrounded," (He opted out how she was surrounded by dead people) "And completely helpless, then no. You had nothing under control."

Hali just looked up at him with large childlike eyes – although he swore, just for a second they hardened into something quite deadly that spoke of revenge for the 'Princess' comment. But, as that was ridiculous, he waved it off as his eyes playing tricks on him.

"Well, my family would have come for me, eventually." Even as she spoke, Tony could feel the uncertainty of that. Then, Hali started gaining more confidence as she spoke, and a gleam entered her eyes. "And I know for sure that if I was there for a _really_ long time, then H – my, um, best friend, would have rescued me."

Tony snorted, as if some tiny human would have been able to rescue another tiny human from the Ten Rings.

Hearing his very obvious doubt at her friend's ability, Hali bristled like an angry sentient cactus, scowling at him strongly.

"She would too! Hel is always there for me; you just don't know what you're talking about." Hali seemed ready to go on with her passionate speech, but Tony had learned some things from Pepper, one which was, _never_ let the girl catch steam or else there was _nothing_ stopping them from wreaking havoc on the world.

"What kind of name is Hell? Is it short for Hellen or something?" Tony interrupted, "Because, really, when you look at your baby, do you think 'you know what, lets name her after the fiery pit where devil's live in, I think it really suits her personality!'" Tony said, swinging his metal clad arms in an animated fashion throughout his speech.

"Well… actually 'fiery pit of Hell' does suit Hel." A contemplating cause gave Tony an opportune moment to blink statistically in confusion, "But, her name isn't _Hell_ , her name is _Hel_."

"Sounds the same to me."

"Its…" Hali looked a little confused herself, not having asked Hel about her name before, "It's with one L, not two."

"Still sounds the same."

"No it doesn –" A pause as Hali seemed to rethink her answer, "Well yeah… I guess it does." Hali admitted, crossing her arms and acting like that's what she'd been going to say the entire time.

"But, it doesn't matter! Hel is a perfectly nice name, so… don't name-shame!"

Tony gave a frustrated sigh, and wondered if this was how people felt when dealing with him, and decided that it probably was.

Tony had the odd thought, that if anyone were to walk in on them, they would do the smart thing and back up slowly, then run very, _very_ far away.

Walking into an alley, or even taking a glance to them, would prove for quite the shock. Who would ever except to see Iron Man, arguing with a young girl, who just so happened to be coated in dried blood, in the dark of night?

Tony made a face, eyes flickering inside his helmet to where the holograms danced around his field of view – checking Jarvis's process of the facial recognition.

Faces flashed briefly through in his peripheral vison, vanishing as quickly as they came, all female with black hair and green eyes, proof of JARVIS trying to find a match. It wasn't done yet, and Tony figured he should probably get Hali a bite to eat, or do _something_ other than hang out in a dirty alleyway.

"Come'on Chipmunk–" ("My name is _HALI_! _")_ "–We've gone to go find a bathroom, get you cleaned up." Tony motioned towards her red stained sweater. "And grab some food, I'm starved, could really do with some pizza right now."

Hali didn't argue with him, and he was just glad that he wouldn't have to _force_ a bloodstained young girl through London, which would have spiked the gossip level up to dangerous levels.

The two misfits walked out of the grimy alley, Hali bouncing a bit ahead of Tony, who walked after her, easily ignoring how everyone stopped their errands to stare.

He wasn't embarrassed about what he was doing, Tony Stark didn't get embarrassed, and sure, he might regret this course of action after Pepper see's the newspapers…

After Pepper see's the newspapers…. The phrase echoed dauntingly in his mind, and it took the super-genius a pitiful amount of time to realize what he'd just thought.

 _Oh_ _crap_.

Tony had completely forgotten about Pepper, and forgetting about Pepper meant he was sleeping on the coach, no matter that it was _his_ house (And wasn't that just so unfair!).

Now, Tony Stark _doesn't_ get embarrassed, but he does keep contrite, and he was certainly contrite right about now. A terribly large group of tourists that didn't want to stop touring despite the lateness of the hour, all with 'I LOVE LONDON' T-shirts, snapped photos of him. Getting an excellent shot of him hiding behind Hali, as though the lithe body would spare him from Pepper's ire.

Hali merely, mostly on impulse based on being famous in her own world (Not that Tony would know about that), waved at the cameras.

Giving the terrified billionaire an odd look (He didn't strike her as the type to shy from camera's), Hali turned to the nearest woman. Who just so happened to be an elderly grandmother, closely followed by a herd of small sleepy children who were all complaining about how they wanted to go home.

"I think he's camera shy." Hali whispered leaning to her, like she was telling a massive secret. Hali jerked her head behind herself, towards the cowering robot, so the elderly woman couldn't mistake who she was talking about.

Little did Hali know, was that when the news spread of Tony secretly being a kindred shy soul, (who _clearly_ was only acting arrogant to overcompensate his insecurity), spread to his fangirls. Thousands of teenage girls (And a good number of boys) squealed in delight. In the next week alone, Iron Man merchandise sold five times quicker than ever before.

Tony however, knew exactly what would be the result of Hali saying that (He was still in earshot, after all), and did the only thing any sane person would do if they had a flying suit.

He grabbed Hali's hand, lifted her into her arms securely, and launched them both into the black, foggy nighttime sky, the crowd cheering happily for getting what they saw as a show.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, In one of Tony's Many, Many Expensive Cars. February 16** **th** **, 2011, 9:09 PM.**

Hali and her new buddy, Tony, were sitting in the back of a fancy sports car, heading to lunch. _Where_ the robot had gotten ahold of such a thing was a mystery to Hali. He'd only made a quick phone call after landing again, and then an expensive car _and_ a driver drove up to them in record time.

Hali took to staring out the window, seeing brightly lit buildings whizz by, their light scaring away the darkness of the night and making the city glow, still teaming with people enjoying the nightlife. And thus, she was understandably bewildered when Tony started talking to the air, jerking her out of her staring.

"JARVIS, what do you mean there's no files on her?" Tony said, and Hali twisted around to look at him. It didn't seem like the comment was directed at her, and she frowned in indecision about whether she should reply or not.

A few seconds passed, during which Hali tried to figure out what – or who – a JARVIS was.

"Yes, you just said that, I'm not doubting your abilities, I'm just making sure…. It was rhetorical, leave it already! I _know_ you always get things right. _Well_ , except that one time…"

A lengthy pause, and Hali opened her mouth to ask what the _hell_ (In no way related to Hel) was going on.

"Oh yes, it was so your fault. Not mine."

Hali narrowed her eyes dangerously at the possibly insane robot (Could robot's even become insane? Wouldn't that mean they had a virus, or were corrupted? She wouldn't claim to know.).

"I've heard that responding to the voices inside of your head is the first sign of craziness." Hali said as offhandedly as she could, and she was rewarded by a choking sound coming from the vibrantly colored robot.

"That must have sounded really bad from your angle." Tony remarked, turning to face her.

"Yeah, it seems pretty bad." Hali said, with a sympathetic look towards the metal-man, only to stop short when, in a single smooth motion, his visor slid down to reveal a perfectly human face.

Hali would never claim to be completely sane, in fact, there was a good chance she wasn't. And she probably hadn't been since Death had come knocking on her door (Not in a figurative sense) sometime after the Battle of Hogwarts.

Maybe, after Hali had promptly slammed the door shut on Hel (Who, at the time, was cosplaying as the stereotypical skeleton scythe Death, some dare she'd been given.), some bit of her sanity had ditched her mind.

Since there was a fifty-fifty chance of her being mildly mentally unstable, Hali blamed _that_ for why she didn't catch on sooner.

"What." Hali said blankly.

Tony rolled his brown eyes ( _He had eyes_!), "Told'ya I wasn't a robot."

"Oh." Hali said dumbly, mouth parted open in surprise, "I really should have seen that coming."

The not-robot snorted, "Yeah, not your brightest moment, Princess." (By now Hali didn't even bother trying to correct him, but the irritated twitch under her eye gave away how she felt about all these nicknames) "We've got food to get, and a plane to catch." (When he'd gotten a flight was beyond Hali) "JARVIS is going to start badgering me 'bout missing my own flight unless we're quick about eating. Which is ridiculous, it's my jet, so they're not going to leave without me! That's exactly why I got my own jet!"

"Because you're late for things?" Hali questioned, cocking her head to the side.

"Ah, no, I'm never late."

"Then wha-" Hali began, but Tony interrupted her.

"I'm _fashionably_ late." Tony said smugly, his expressive face much less creepy than the faceless suit he had worn. "Even JARVIS agrees with that, right JARVIS?"

"If that's what you want to believe, Sir." A smooth British voice said, and Hali spun around to find the culprit, but nothing was there.

"What was that?" Hali said, and, on reflex, she tried to summon the Elder Wand to her. But, naturally, as that wand was still on Privet Drive (Or Hel had already gotten it back, she didn't know), all that happened was the Resurrection Stone – currently shaped like a necklace – twitched slightly against her chest.

Hali twisted wildly around in her seat again, and found herself back to facing a laughing Tony.

Feeling like she'd be tricked (And not sure how), Hali glared at the laughing man, mind working to figure out what was going on. "Are you a wizard?" Hali blurted out, it would explain a few things, and if not, she could chalk it up to her being a 'child'. Kids could get away with a lot of stuff before anyone batted an eyelid, it made her secret ever the safer.

"Well, people do call me a wizard with tech," Tony said thoughtfully, before a grin lit up his face, "So, _hell yeah_ , I'm a wizard, Abracadabra!" He said loudly. And Hali laughed nervously along, taking that as a no. No real wizard would _dare_ say Abracadabra, as it was awfully similar sounding to Avada Kedavra, and widely caused mass panic whenever a naïve muggle-born mentioned it.

Tony, it seemed, finally took pity on the bewildered gir, or, more like he wanted to show off. "JARVIS here is an AI, artificial intelligence, who I made a while back." He said, "Oh you know," He said with false modesty, "Not a _big_ deal, _just_ the most intelligent AI to _ever_ to be built. He runs the company, _and_ finds the time to run all my houses as well, he also makes flying tons easier, doing all the mathematical business while I shoot down the bad guys." He said, still with exaggerated modesty that no one in their right mind, or damaged mind, would ever believe.

Hali nodded slowly, she hadn't missed the casual references towards his multiple houses, nor all the other hints that this man was _very_ rich. It was pretty clear considering he tipped the pizza waitress a hundred bucks, and Hali was relatively sure that was a lot (She wasn't very good with American currency).

"What's with the robot suit then?" Hali asked, wondering if all the Muggles in this world had a pastime of wandering around in metal tin-cans.

"Oh…" Tony said, with a theatrical look of surprise on his face, "One other thing I forgot to mention. I'm, you know, a _superhero_ that's saved hundreds of thousands of people." He tried to say this casually, but couldn't keep the pride out of his voice.

"Anything _else_ you'd like to mention?" Hali said sarcastically, while internally being rather worried that he might actuallyhave _another secret_ up his sleeve.

"Nope!"

The relief she felt at that _surely_ wasn't normal, Hali idly thought, as they reached pizza parking lot.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, A Pizza Parlor. February 16** **th** **,** **2011, 9:12 PM.**

Silence.

Silence was like a disease, spreading throughout the entire store, everyone was staring, aghast, making sure to forever encrypt the truly historical moment of _Tony Stark_ ordering cheap London pizza in their minds.

A boyfriend turned to his girlfriend, who was staring, transfixed, at _fricking Iron Man_ , who now had turned to the cute little girl next to him, clearing asking what she wanted.

His girlfriend of two years, Jessica Porleese, twisted back to Abe Tolket, her boyfriend, and said, in the most awed voice he'd ever heard her use –

"Tony Stark _eats_?"

Abe nodded, looking at Tony Stark in a puzzled sort of understanding.

"I know, I never thought about it, I mean, it's kinda obvious. Everyone's got to eat food, to, you know, survive." Abe said.

Jessica ignored him in favor of continuing to chat, "Not only does he _eat_ , but he eats _normal_ food. I mean…" She gasped, and looked for all the world as though she'd discovered to solution to world peace. "Do'ya reckon that the Queen eats as well?"

Not even finding that worthy of an answer, Abe cocked his head to the side, "Why's he in his suit?"

"Fundraiser?" Jessica suggested, eye's affixed on Tony, who was now carrying a water over to a small table for two, handing it to the little girl. "A lost bet? I have no idea."

"Well, who's the girl?" Abe questioned, considering Jessica was the encyclopedia of all things Tony Stark, he thought for sure she'd know.

"No clue." A pause. "Illegitimate daughter?" another beat. "Wait, no…. Maybe – maybe he and Virginia Pott's actually _are_ together! I never put much stock into that rumor, but here we have living proof! Oh my god, I so called it. Tony and Virginia are perfect for each other."

"I thought you thought him and that other celebrity were good together." Abe said, blanking on said person's name.

Jessica waved that off, "No I didn't."

"Oh yes you did."

"Nope! I always said that Tony and Virginia were perfect." Jessica denied, "And _ha_ , they _so_ are a couple! Awwww, that kid is so cute. I can really see the resemblance."

"I can't" Abe said dryly, there was absolutely nothing similar between them. Abe cocked his head and squinted slightly at the unlikely pair. "Wait, I think they might have a slightly similar hair color. But Stark's hair is more brown, and the kid's got black hair."

"Got it from the mother."

"But Pott's has red hair!"

"You're just not as observant as me." Jessica explained, cooing when the black-haired girl giggled at something.

Abe sighed, but didn't argue in favor of eating his pizza.

Girls were weird.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Up Real High, Like, Really High. February 16** **th** **,** **2011, 10:01 PM.**

Up in the sky, Hali peered out the window of the irritatingly steady airplane, unlike with brooms, it flew very smoothly, and unlike brooms, it had a bar, a few televisions, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Indeed, it felt more like a car then a plane, well, a normal car, not the Knight Bus, or Ron's flying car. Both of those were a lot crazier then this, and she was enjoying it.

It had taken a short car ride after grabbing pizza to get to the airport, going through a special entrance to one of Tony's private planes, that had been lent to one of Tony's friends – its reason for being so far from Amercia. So now she was in an airplane for the first time in her life. Despite having grown up with Muggles, she'd never even set foot in an airport.

Instead she was always left at Number 4 whenever the Dursleys went on vacation, thus she was understandably in awe of the giant metal bird-thing. Although she was certain that this luxury wasn't normal, seriously, why would you _ever_ need a spa on a jet? Overkill much?

For the next hour, Hali was delighted by the glorious view, watching pinpricks of glowing lights going by, but the cities quickly melted into a never-ending ocean of blue, that looked nearly black in the dark. But, she started getting bored with the repetitive ocean pretty quickly, even the fluffy clouds were growing uninteresting.

"Are we there yet?" Hali questioned, and, from where he was scrolling through a phone, Tony turned to look at her with some surprise, like he'd forgotten about her already.

"No pipsqueak, we're not there yet." Tony said, before he went back to his flicking of the phone.

Hali sighed, looking out the window morosely.

"How long?" Hali asked dully.

"Eleven hours."

Hali groaned, "Why couldn't we just fly in your nifty robot suit?"

"Too dangerous when carrying someone, and my arms would be real cramped by the end of it, so… _nope_!"

Hali stared out the window for another few moments, "Eleven hours…." She repeated, and sighed, wishing she could apparate without a wand. "So, how does this thing work, anyway?" Hali asked, thinking about Mr. Weasley and his deserve to learn all about how airplanes stayed up.

Tony perked up, actually going as far as to place his phone down.

"Well –" He began excitedly, and Hali began to regret this immediately.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, Pigmenhorn Avenue, The sidewalk. February 16** **th** **,** **2011, 10:04 PM.**

Meanwhile, away from Hali (Who was being subjected to a special type of torture called Tony Stark) and Tony (Who was passionately explaining how airplanes fly to a partially awed at his vigor, and partially stunned, Hali.), down a grimy side road, a group of Aurors appeared with a series of loud cracks, similar to gunshots.

The leader of this particular squad motioned towards a side door, set into the outside wall of an eerily quiet warehouse.

They hurried forward, footsteps nonexistent – as they had the foresight to put silencing charms onto their feet – and mouths shut tight.

As they were all very focused on their important rescue mission, none of the seasoned Aurors noticed a broken bicycle, sitting innocently further along the side road.

Because of this, the Aurors (After discovering the grisly mess inside) would take an extra hour to find their next clue, and get back on the trail of the missing young witch.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **London, Raylin Road, The sidewalk. February 16** **th** **,** **2011, 10:12 PM.**

In another place, not too far from where the Aurors had just set off into the warehouse with determination, a gaggle of people stood by the side of a busy London road. Old buildings sprung up around them, the beautiful olden architecture aweing tourists, and being completely ignored by locals.

"Are you _sure_ this is what we do?" James Potter said, looking suspiciously as his wife, this had got to be some type of prank, it was simply ridiculous!

"Yep! I saw it in a movie, so it'll work for us just fine." Lily chirped, as she jumped from foot to foot in a show of anxious energy.

Giving her a look that clearly showed he didn't believe her, James was about to make another comment, when Remus gave an exasperated sigh.

"Go ahead and at least _try,_ James." He said in his meditative voice that managed to calm everyone down.

Except Lily, Lily was still a mass of churning vengeance ready to be unleashed on the next person to accidentally bump into her, all thoughts focused solely towards finding her daughter.

In fact, is arguable that she didn't even know what Remus had just said.

"Why can't we just take the Knight Bus?" James's whined.

Remus groaned, "Because, James, we don't have a definite address to give them, what with your stupid Rune Stone not telling us much, just the direction that she is. And you know what it's telling us? That she's over in the direction of the airport, and since that's a good escape route, we're going to guess that's where they've gone, ok?"

James's looked unconvinced, and looked uncertainty towards the road again.

Sirius rolled his eyes beside his friends, "I'll do it, your all just a bunch of wimps." He said, he was anxious as Lily to find Hali (Well, actually he doubted anyone could come close to that level of extreme, but it was a close match.), and, with a confidence many insecure high schoolers would be jealous of, he exaggerated the motion of extending his hand, and…

Stuck out his thumb.

"Was that so hard?" He said sarcastically, tilting the appendage so it would lean to where Lily said an airport would be.

Peter laughed, and James shrugged weakly, not having a good enough defense to do argue back.

Lily brightened suddenly, and, proving she was somewhat paying attention, pointed excitedly as blue minivan pulled up, parking next to a sign that declared it was for 'drop off only'.

The window lowered, and a shaggy head poked out, "You need a lift?" A man asked, smiling somewhat nervously at the group of misfits.

They all nodded, and the man shrugged weakly, looking like he was regretting this already. Something that probably had to do with how Lily looked homicidal, Remus like a sleep-deprived could-be-homeless man (As he always did when stressed), Sirius, who had the air of an arrogant prince around him. Not to forget James, who, at the moment, was acting like a sad puppy, and then Peter, who just looked extremely worried, constantly peering around as if frightened they were being followed.

All in all, not a good mix.

But, in good spirit, the man-in-the-minivan gave a forced smile, clicking a button to open the car doors. And, to the man's confusion, most of the group looked fascinated when his modern car doors slide open automatically.

"Oh my Merlin! The doors just opened on their own. Did you see that Lily Flower? Is it haunted? Is it magic?" James asked, edging away from the car, while staring at it with a slightly awed yet terrified expression.

Lily shook herself out of her thoughts that, judging by her expression, were somewhere in the murderous variety, long enough to roll her eyes. But, she didn't give any explanation, much preferring to script out just what she would say to the _monsters_ who stole away her daughter in her mind.

"Your fine, James. He's a Muggle! Nothing to worry about." Sirius said, climbing into the car and grinning at the somewhat frightened man who'd be giving them a ride to the airport.

"A… Muggle?" The man asked confusedly, as though not sure if he should be offended or not, he was still sitting in the driver's seat and had to turn to look at the group.

"Umm…." Sirius said blankly, "It's… its…" While Sirius fumbled for a believable response, Remus stepped in before his friend would blurt out something and make the entire situation even worse than it was.

"It's a word where we come from, meaning 'nice man'." Remus said in his ever-calm voice, smiling benignly at him and hoping that the bemused man wouldn't take notice of how suspicious the entire group was acting.

"Really? That's cool, you guys are Muggle's too!" The man said, brightening up and grinning at the people who were climbing into his car.

Remus smiled at him, and relaxed into a leather seat that was directly behind Lily – so better for him to stop her from doing anything mad – and gestured for Peter to join him.

"No we're not, we're wiz–" James started confusedly, but Lily non-too gently kneed him from her own seat next to James's. Proving once more she _was_ aware of what was happening, although the same couldn't be said for Sirius, who was staring at his seatbelt in fascination and not paying attention.

"What he means is, um, he's a wiz...word" Remus said, with an awkward pause as he wildly invented what he was saying, now understanding why Lily didn't like to let James's go into the Muggle world. It seems he was capable of destroying the Statue of Secrecy in a couple minutes, a great feat, to be honest.

"Yeah!" Agreed Peter from next to Remus, "Wizar – I mean – wizword." He said, nodding along, and causing the rest of the group to do so as well, even Sirius had left alone his seatbelt to nod.

"What does wizword mean?" The shaggy-haired man asked excitedly, looking eager to learn some new slang.

Because Sirius looked dangerously ready to pipe up, Remus stepped in yet again, "Wizword," He began, trying to act like he knew exactly what he was inventing "Wizword means…." He looked around for inspiration, "It means your 'a wiz at… Life.'"

"What does the word part of it mean?" The curious man asked, the man's eyes drifting to where Sirius was still standing up, snapping and unsnapping the seatbelt, having lost interest in the conversation.

"Look what this does!" Sirius gasped, grinning as he yet again unsnapped his seatbelt, "How does it work? Do I sit on it?" He promptly sat on top of the seatbelt, shifting a bit to be more comfortable.

Attention diverted, the shaggy-haired man stared at shock at Sirius.

"You're not from around here, are you?" He said, and the group nodded, Lily elbowing James in warning when he opened his mouth, predictably ready to do an American accent.

"No, we're not." Peter said, "Um... we're from, um…. Um… Antarctica! Yeah, Antarctica!" Peter ignored Remus's groan of, "Antarctica _, really_?", and James's confused mumble of, "What accents do people in Antarctica have?", in favor of trying to look as sincere as possible.

The man just nodded, not even doubting it, after all, they _were_ acting like foreigners. "Not used to cars, then?" He said, looking pointedly towards James, who was conspiring with Sirius on how they were supposed to use the seatbelts.

"No, they're not. Now can we get to the airport already?" Lily snapped, evidentially impatient.

"O…K…" The man drawled out, glaring a bit at the collection of weirdoes to prove he wasn't happy with them. "No manners…" He muttered, but he dutifully turned around, and started the car.

He's barely pulled out from where he'd parked, when a muffled 'oomph' came from behind, caused when a surprised James's was jolted out of his seat, unprepared for the sudden movement.

"Lily!" James's complained, and – with a long suffering sigh that Remus knew was from someone who was tired of dealing with things like this – Lily impatiently buckled him in, "Now help Sirius do his own, Merlin knows that two grown men can't figure it out."

She turned around to peer into the seat row behind her, and smiled in satisfaction when Remus and Peter had already gotten theirs on.

"See? Peter and Remus figured it out, not that hard, now was it?" She said, and both Remus and Peter 'forgot' to mention that they had merely copied how Lily had done her own. "Now snap too it, nearest airport, _now_." Lily demanded of their irate driver.

With a morose sigh, the man who really was regretting this started up the car, and off they went, under the dark shadow of night, down a populated road, and towards Hali.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **A/N This is so short (Only 13 pages!), but I really wanted to upload** _ **something**_ **.**

 **As you can tell, I'm setting up for a very fun time when the Auror's, the Potter's, and anyone else who I add to the wild chase, finally catch up to Hali.**

 **What do you think about pairing Hali with Hel? It wouldn't be the main focus of the story, but just in the background? You guys seem to like the idea of a pairing, so… thoughts? I'm rather partial to it, but would like to know what you think. Obviously Hali and Hel would have to look older than they are when they do any romance stuff, I can't handle it otherwise. But, Hel can shapeshift, and she can do the same to Hali.**

 **Like always, please review, and like always, send me your death threats when I don't upload a new chapter in a while (Guilt tripping me does wonders with how fast I write!)**

 **(Also the couple at the pizza parlor called Pepper, Virginia, because that's her real name. Pepper is just a nickname Tony gave her that Pepper likes.)**


	7. Chapter 7, SHIELD's Ugly Base

**NOT DEAD. Oh, I'm truly horrible – no update for months! I've become my worst nightmare: a slow-updating writer. (insert lots of excuses about family and vacations and school that no one cares about blah blah blah)**

 **Also OH WOW I somehow have more than a thousand followers, that was unexpected. Thank you everyone! I love you all and I'll be back on my regular upload schedule of every week!**

 **DISCLAIMER: Still own nothing, wow, who would've thought.**

 **Chapter 7**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **In a very fancy totally-not-hijacked jet. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 12:19 PM.**

Hali no longer thought the jet spa was overkill after using it. She finally cleaned off all the blood on her and was able to get a manicure from a tired flight attendee. She wiggled her fingernails, painted a beautiful shade of black, and though they were covered by a new pair of dainty slippers, her toes were the same. Hali dried her long black hair with a towel and went back into the seating area of the jet, dressed in a blood-free expensive shirt a hundred sizes too big. Stylish.

She flopped her arms, the sleeves flying into the air with them. Luna would absolutely adore this fashion statement, though it wasn't really on purpose – they only had Tony's clothes on board. She yawned – dying was exhausting and even immortal's needed sleep – and was about to pester Tony how much longer til they got to America, when there was a _thump_ of something large thudding against the sheet of the jet.

The distant sound of a machine whirring away could be heard from the cockpit, then the sound of air being sucked out the plane. A scramble could be heard, someone yelled, there was another bang, and then, like nothing had happened, the plane started going at a slight angle. Hali frowned suspiciously, summoning her wand, and finding that _now_ she could finally get it back. She gave a sarcastic thank-you to Hel, and made to ask Tony what was happening.

Except Tony looked just as suspicious and bewildered as Hali felt, "That wasn't supposed to happen, was it," Hali commented – and though it was rhetorical, Tony answered:

"That is the _opposite_ of what's supposed to happen."

"I figured," Hali said; and then made a show of looking resigned, "I'll go check on the pilot."

" _Oh no you don't_ _tinkerbell_ – Pepper would have my head on a platter if I let you go off on your own. And if you get _hurt_ , then Pepper will be serving my head to the CEO's of other companies as she declares that'll be what happens to them if they go against her. I don't want to be an example of Pepper's wrath!"

"Only thing you've proven is that I _really_ want to meet with this Pepper," Hali said, a cheeky smile playing on her face even as their plane was likely being taken over. Could planes be hacked? Probably not. Maybe. Hali didn't know, planes were weird, if Tony's impromptu lecture on planes taught her anything. "BYE!" She yelled as she leapt from her comfortable seat and ran down the aisle, set on her mission to find the pilot.

Tony has only one step behind her, _and_ he was still dressed up in his robot-suit (Apparently he needed another robot to take that robot off – which Hali didn't get, but who was she to argue with a genius?), so Hali sped up.

She burst past the curtain to the driver's compartment, and the woman in the driver's seat turned to her, pushing sleek red hair out of her face. Hali glanced at the unmoving man slumped next to the woman, and up at the roof, which had a suspiciously melded-back-on section.

"Hello," the woman greeted calmly, "You've been rerouted."

Tony skidded to a stop behind Hali, and going by the minor relaxing of his shoulders he recognized the woman in the driver's seat. Or he recognized the symbol on her shirt. "You guys suck." He said grouchily "You really do. Where the hell are we going?"

He didn't ask about the pilot, but Hali could tell he was already making plans to give the guy a huge stipend of money and a free vacation – Tony was like that.

"Where do you think we're going, Stark?" The woman asked sarcastically. "SHIELD, obviously."

Hali groaned – great, another one of those SHIELD prats who wanted to take her to some base "because we can help you".

"I'm out," Hali said, flinging up her arms, her sleeves flapping. "I swear, you SHIELD prats are always popping up when I least expect it," She said, doing a quick stretch, and cracking her knuckles. The woman half-rose from her chair, tapping a button on the digital screen in front of her as she did so.

Hali, with the confidence of someone who'd seen Thestrals flying outside, ran for the large floor-to-ceiling window before the agent could comprehend what was happening, ready to crash through in an epic shower of glass. She could dive for it, it would be incredible – awe-inspiring, astronomical, a picture of elegant power.

 _THUNK._ She hit the glass full on, collapsing where she stood.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

Tony winced, and quickly knelt next to her. He really should've expected the crazy kid to do something like that. Pepper was going to be horrified, which, he thought, probably shouldn't be where his mind goes. Right, tiny six-year-old knocking themselves out, he had to prioritize things. Pepper later, child now.

The SHIELD agent, unlike Tony, was alert, and she gasped, moving forward. The plane, which she'd put on auto-pilot, kept flying steadily even as the pilot raced to Hali's side. Tony side-eyed the console, which now had the words WASHINGTON DC in large glowing letters. Seems like the agent didn't want to go to his Malibu mansion.

The agent, speaking of her, whispered a Russian curse, checking Hali's pulse. She tapped her earpiece, brushing aside long red hair as she did so.

"Romanoff. Stark and Potter are aware the reroute, though I can't say I'm surprised, the way you dropped me onto the jet was less than quiet. I'd dare say it was _loud_. And when seeing me, Potter was rendered unconscious trying to… escape through a window," Romanoff (Tony had to guess it was her surname), said with a mostly professional attitude.

Tony thought that Romanoff had an awfully nice way to illustrate slamming into a window like a drunken bird, but at the same time he couldn't imagine her saying anything like that. Maybe if he paid her she would…. Hmm….

"Look," Tony said, brushing aside such thoughts and trying to casually lean against a wall of the large cockpit. "I know you got your orders to take me to your dumb base, but I don't want you stealing off with the kid _I_ just rescued to do who knows what."

"Well," Romanoff said, eye's narrowing, "What would _you_ do with her?"

"I would take her to my place, clean her up, and figure out who she belongs to," Tony said without pause.

"We would do the same, but with far more advanced technology, an army of skilled therapists, and other people also with… unnatural powers to help her relate to us," Romanoff retaliated, rising to her feet to look him dead in the eye.

" _Really_ , and you think that wouldn't overwhelm her?" He didn't so much as blink at the confirmation Hali had abilities – he'd be surprised if she _didn't._ That girl was too… everything not to.

"We know how to deal with this. We would introduce her _carefully_ to _one or two_ people at a time! We're not as stupid as you think, Stark."

"You sure seem to be. And to me, it makes sense she'd be uncomfortable and afraid around so many unfamiliar faces – I've known her longer. She'd be better off with me, _I'm_ her savior."

The two started arguing like they were deciding who got custody, or, maybe more accurate, who got to keep the cute puppy found on the side of the road. All the while, the plane kept going through the star-filled night.

Tony glared at her, "I have more than enough security to keep her safe until someone collects her!"

"We do too. Give me a break, Stark, you don't know the first thing about children, let _us_ help her." Romanoff looked close to calling SHIELD and asking if she could attack him, and for one moment Tony wondered if they'd let her at him. He got the idea SHIELD didn't like him that much, after he went against their orders and spilled the Iron Man secret.

"Pepper knows how, and JARVIS does too."

"It is true," JARVIS said, smooth voice coming from the suit. Tony mentally gave JARVIS a high-five, and nodded.

For a very long moment the two glared at each other – one dressed in a black tee with simple blue leggings, and the other in a full red and gold metal suit. Finally, Romanoff's expression softened just a touch, as she glanced at Hali, lying on the floor with a peaceful expression on her face. Tony cheered mentally, something he said – no idea what, but it was still a win – had made her sympathize with him.

Or, well, Hali, but it still counted.

The Russian woman tapped her earpiece once more, taking a small breath and squaring her shoulders. "There's been a minor change in our original plan," she began, "Stark will be coming to Triskelion as well – no I'm serious, inform Fury of this… new development. Further details will be provided at the briefing."

Tony mimed a talking hand, and rolled his eyes. Romanoff mouthed "Up yours," even as she steadily listened to her earpiece. The two quickly started mouthing progressively nasty things to each other, even as Natasha hummed in agreement and spoke largely in code for the rest of her conversation with the SHIELD agent.

Finally, she hung up, bringing her hand down from her ear. "We're going to SHIELD, and you'll be on your _best behavior_ , if you insist on coming along."

"You wouldn't be able to get rid of me anyway," Tony bragged.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Romanoff said.

Tony rolled his eyes, but didn't answer. That was… probably true, come to think of it. She reminded him, in a very disturbing way, of Pepper when she was stressed out. Maybe that was Romanoff's problem, she was really stressed out. "You tried yoga yet?" he asked.

Romanoff gave a thin smirk. "Yes, but I was there to kill the instructor, who doubled as the leader of a national mafia group. Wasn't too relaxing."

Tony hmphed. "Well you might want to try again, _without_ the assassin-y stuff distracting you."

Romanoff looked pained at how he called her job "stuff", but managed not to murder him, which Tony thought was quite nice of her.

She picked up Hali, who was still very unconscious, and walked back into the seating area. It was Tony's vet, so of course there was a couch large enough to lay her on. Tony hoped the fiery child didn't wake up, because otherwise she might try to attack Romanoff. Maybe if they were lucky, she'd stay that way until the flight was over.

Maybe.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Passenger plane up real high. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 12:28 PM – minutes after Hali being laid on the couch.**

Sometimes Peter regretted being friends with Sirius and James.

This was one of those times.

Sirius had been keeping a consistent chant of "wish I could apparate" for the past half hour, and tapping his foot impatiently. The only time he paused was whenever he peered over Peter to look out the window, and then he'd get scared for a while until continuing.

The airplane they rode in was crammed, and there was a funky smell, like maybe someone tried to cover up a gross scent, but only got halfway there. The nighttime sky covered the plane like a blanket, or a potato sack.

Peter had the fortune of being seated next to Sirius, who was chewing his fingernails with his legs drawn up to his chest, and some large woman with a heavy Swedish accent who really wanted food.

At least he got the window seat.

It had taken _thirteen_ memory charms merely to get the plane ticket to Washington. Two for the guards outside the airport who didn't want to let in the ragged and crazy-eyed family – which Peter related to. Then another for an elderly muggle who saw them charm security, and after a desperate search for where they got tickets from (Lily hadn't been in an airport since she was little), they used three more on the receptionist who kept getting suspicious and threatened to call security when they handed Galleons in.

Then Remus accidentally obliviated Peter, so he wasn't sure how they managed to use six more.

After getting their ticket, security confiscated their wands, since the y-rey picked up on their magical cores and the amount of sheer magic caused the machine to malfunction. The wands were pointy enough and polished enough they could act as weapons, which didn't help, so once taken to a little gray interrogation room, the marauders tried to spin a story explaining it away.

That didn't work.

Four more spells were used to escape from that dangerously close call; they _needed_ to find Hali, and all these people we not helping at all. After a lot of Sirius and James being confused by Muggle things and nearly messing things up, they boarded the plane.

There was James now, whispering loudly to Lily that they were _flying_ without a _broom_. Remus shushed him – Remus was really good at shushing, it was truly a talent. Peter slouched further in his seat, wanting to pull his hat over his eyes to pretend he didn't know anyone. Too bad he didn't have a hat, that'd be very cool and cinematic.

He resisted the urge to snap at the Swedish woman that no, he didn't have food on him, and no matter how many times she asked, he still wouldn't.

"How much longer of this?" Peter said aloud, pretending not to hear Sirius whispering "wish I could apparate wish I could apparate".

"Only another eight or so hours," the woman boomed, accent showing through. And with a hand befitting Hagrid, she patted him painfully on the head, make Peter's buckle.

"Only," Peter said faintly.

Sirius's whispered chant increased in intensity.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Flying over Washington DC. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 12:46 AM – six hours later, and a different time-zone later.**

Hali jolted to consciousness and scrambled to her feet. She swayed, dizzy, and rubbed her head. She was more than a little embarrassed; maybe she should've been a little less dramatic and vanished the glass with the Elder Wand. It was no longer nighttime, and instead sunlight spilled into the smoothly flying jet, bright and warm.

Hali debated the pros and cons of jumping out the window again, or blasting the agent and Tony with Stupefy. But something made her hesitate, probably Dumbledore's mischievous voice in the back of her mind telling her she could play along and see what adventure's she found.

She really had been enjoying her fun yet death-free family life, but after being kidnapped, she now suspected that she had to put it on hold. Besides, she had to admit she was painfully curious to know what would happen – it wasn't like they could ever harness the powers of death with their contraptions. And she didn't think they could bottle her magic either. Hel had assured her so. So, she didn't leap out the window, though she kept in mind Hel's warning about SHIELD.

Tony, still in his robot suit, lounged on a huge king size bed that must've popped out of the wall. Muggles were weird like that, even wizards didn't go as far to stick their furniture in the wall.

"Isn't it uncomfy in that suit of yours?" Hali asked. He looked miserable, and kept wiggling for a better position. He'd tried to put a blanket over himself, but it had fallen off.

"It's like sitting on a cloud. I feel absolutely amazing," he replied flatly.

Well now Hali knew he was lying, she'd sat on a cloud before – very overrated. Fell right through.

Hali bounced on the balls of her feet, looking out the window. Her eyes widened. They were passing over a city, one she'd never seen before. It was afternoon, so she could see everything clearly. There were green parks and big, winding river's, peppered on the sides with hundreds of buildings.

"America!" She cried happily. "I already feel like I'm made of freedom and pancakes!" She pressed her head against the window, trying to see everything better. "Where _are_ we? New York?"

"Washington DC," Tony said. "Very different."

"So, we're going to SHIELD!" Hali said, "You know, I wasn't fond of the idea at first –" Tony snorted at the under exaggerating – "But now I really want to know where those pesky people come from!"

Tony shrugged, getting out of bed to stand next to her. The bed itself folded smoothly back into the wall. "Maybe a huge hive, like bee's."

"Hey that's not nice," Hali said, scowling. "Bees are _much_ nicer than SHIELD is."

From the cockpit Romanoff sighed.

Tony smirked. "This is why I like you!"

"I hope it's castle – I love castles. You know, I went to school in a castle," Hali said solemnly.

"You're kidding ri – actually you know what, I don't doubt that. Is it a nice castle?" Tony said conversationally, though his eyes gave way he couldn't believe he was having this discussion.

Hali didn't answer, distracted. She gaped as they flew lower down, face squeaking as she moved to get a better view.

She got a partially obscured view of the White House as the jet flew over endless rows of offices and houses, coming low as they went over the river. Turned out that was because they were coming in to land at the only building there, which though not as large as Hogwarts, was very impressive. It had a lot of windows, which made the concrete tower of sheer architectural power shine with the afternoon's sun's reflection.

Hali didn't appreciate the sheer architectural power, and wrinkled her nose, "It looks ugly."

Romanoff, proving again she was eavesdropping, coughed loudly from where she flew the plane; like she was covering a laugh.

"How'd you do it then, Hulu?"

Hali turned and swung at him, a flappy sleeve hitting his suit with no affect, "Hali! My name's Hali!" She cried, the reference lost to her.

Tony shrugged, "How'd you design it then?" he asked, the plane getting bumpy as it slid into a hanger, which opened automatically.

She steadied herself by clutching the window sill, "I'd make it cobblestone, add a few pillars, some turrets, big arch windows…"

Hali spent the rest of the landing, and the exiting, and the walk to the SHIELD lobby, just describing Hogwarts. Somewhere along the way, Tony handed her Nargles, which had been getting thoroughly cleansed of blood by the plane's washing machines. She held the plush feline as she stared around the lobby, eyes narrowed. It was prettier inside at least.

Big and airy, with a shiny eagle statue in the center, and many people walking briskly to meetings or other scheduled arrangements. A few people gave them calculating looks, but most didn't look twice. Natasha walked briskly in front of them, expecting them to follow. Hali was offended she thought she had their loyalty so quickly, especially after all those agents kept going after Hali for so long and after she'd really nothing.

Hali still followed though.

She didn't want to get lost, after all.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Outside** **Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport** **. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:11 PM**

Lily and her family burst out the doors of the airport, gasping for breath like they'd just run from security. Well, actually they _had_ just run from security, which explained that. Remus, of all people, had caused a stir by growling at a few rude passerby's, getting embarrassed, then tripping over his shoelace and falling onto a man sitting on a bench.

When some employees came over to see what happened, they, like any other innocent person who totally payed for their tickets, sprinted for the doors.

"Go go go!" Lily hissed, shoving James forward, off the sidewalk. They all jolted into motion, James following his tracker's string and leading them towards Hali at full run.

"She isn't that far!" James whispered, relieved and exhausted. Remus and Lily had managed to get some sleep on the plane, but it wasn't much. Other than that, they hadn't gotten a wink of sleep since leaving Privet Drive in a rush.

Sirius collapsed onto the concrete parking lot ground, the hot sun bearing down on the Londongoers who were not used to such a thing. "I – I can't." He huffed. "Go on without me! Everything aches!"

"We haven't been running for a minute yet!" Lily said in frustration, "Stop the complaining,"

"No, no, Sirius is right," Remus said, equally dead inside.

"I am?" Sirius looked surprised.

"He _is_?" Lily and James both asked, eyes wide.

"We need something to get us there faster," Remus said, "Hali might me in danger! She very likely is! We need –"

"A plane!" Sirius cried, boosted with confidence from Remus actually agreeing with him.

"Not close as all!" Remus said, "Not planes. Motorcycles."

"And where," Lily said, "Do you think we're getting one of those."

Remus pointed, and everyone followed his finger. There was a diner across the intersection, and after a large double decker bus went by, they could see on top of the sign, a decorative, yet very real, motorcycle.

Lily giggled manically, and they all exchanged looks.

"Just to be clear," Peter piped up, "We're stealing a motorcycle, yes?"

"Yup!" Sirius said, mouth bared in a grin. "Then we'll go brutally murder whoever's kidnapped Hali."

"Oh, ok," Peter said, rolling up the sleeves of his cardigan. "Just so you know, my mother would be ashamed of me."

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **The European Ministry of Magic, Offices of the Accidental Magical Reversal Sub Department. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:17**

Meanwhile, two very different groups were also on the hunt for Halimeda Potter. Trained Aurors, and the somewhat foolish Accidental Magical Reversal team. The A.M.R had only just finalized the paperwork required for them to get an international portkey to America, so they could go follow the Aurors. They were the ones who gave them the tip, so they ought to be allowed to come along and find the missing girl. And they knew how to work The Orbs, which detected underage magic and were tied to a specific witch or wizard. Halimeda's orb had burned bright for a nearly a day before suddenly stopping.

The Magical Reversal Squad squabbled over who could go on the daring trip, and eventually made no actual decision which meant they were all coming along. The brunette woman who had gotten hit by a few too many obliviates, looked at the old newspaper they were using as a porkey with confusion – she had a tendency to forget what she was doing.

The porkey pulled hard at their naval's, and through the spinning vortex of being yanked across an entire ocean Dave, their leader, managed to yell "This no longer seems like a good idea!"

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Triskelion** **: SHIELD HQ, February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:20 PM**

"What?" Natasha snapped at the agent who had the _gale_ to stop the infamous Natasha Romanoff as she escorted a superhuman. The young lady managed to keep her cool, which showed why she was allowed to join SHIELD.

"Director Fury want's you in his office, ma'am. And he wants to see Halimeda Potter as well."

"What about me?" Stark asked, pouting.

"You'll be getting your Iron Man armor taken off, we have the equipment to do so. Come with me sir, or I will have to ask you to leave the building. Weapons of that kind, in the control of someone who does not work with SHIELD, is not allowed inside Triskelion," She led him off, the billionaire looking over his shoulder at Hali and mouthing "See you in a bit"

Natasha didn't think anything good was happening, this was all very rehearsed. Split up the notoriously nosy Stark, have him taken away, and she didn't recognize that agent either, and Fury always sent someone who's word of mouth she could trust to inform her of anything.

Apparently, she stood quietly for too long, since Hali tugged at her shirt. "We got a person to meet, things to do! No daydreaming!" the child said crossly.

Natasha nodded tightly, and instead of taking the nearby glass elevator, she beelined for the long staircase up. Many more escape routes that way, not to mention harder to box in and easier to protect Hali. Natasha grabbed the superhuman's little hand, which might seem like a sweet thing to do, but was far more loaded than that.

They scaled the floors quickly, Natasha not showing any signs of her stress other than a slight tensing of her jaw. Fury's office was very high up, and after flashing her SHIELD badge to the agents outside the door, she was permitted to go inside.

"Just you." A guard said when she stepped forward to open the door.

" _Excuse me_?" Natasha asked, stopping to stare at him with narrowed eyes. Hali looked between the two, frowning.

"Just you, Halimeda Potter is next."

There he was with the full name again.

Natasha nodded slowly, looking down at Hali. "You stay here until you're called in, be careful." the weight of her gun against her hip gave her assurance as she walked away from Hali. A bad feeling twisted her gut, and she cracked her neck before she entered Fury's office.

The doors slammed shut behind her, and immediately a jet of white light hit her in the face, not giving her time to do more than reach for her gun. She went completely stiff, limbs snapping together. She tipped forward, not able to move her mouth to scream. What technology was this? Who had it in their control? _Where was Fury_.

She froze milliseconds from hitting the ground, her body floating, and she was unable to do anything. She floated up, and she could see Fury, standing behind his desk and looking like Fury. Bald head, dark skin, no smile.

"Meeting adjourned," Fury growled – and, yes, that was Fury's voice. There was someone next to him, though, someone pale and young. Young… there was another young person outside about to come – _Hali!_ She couldn't move a muscle, couldn't even struggle as Fury tapped the screen of his computer, sending the green light to the watches outside.

Hali pushed the door open, not seeing Natasha, or the pale boy, who suddenly Natasha couldn't see either.

"Hullo!" Hali said cheerily, "You called for me?"

Fury smiled thinly. "The Girl _-_ Who-Lived, greeting me with a smile? How different."

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Hadn't heard from the chaps from the ministry in far too long, you might've wondered what they were up too, so there you have it. Oh – the little thingy at the end with Fury? Why I can't give that away now can I.**

 **Please remember to badger me to make the next chapter, and to tell me your favorite parts/what you didn't like or thought could be improved! I take constructive criticism as a compliment that someone cared enough to give me advice : )**

 **Next chapter will be released next Wednesday so you have that to look forward to!**


	8. Chapter 8, The Bothersome Ferret

**A/N: Hey all, just as planned here's the next chapter! I'd apologize for the cliffhanger in the last chapter but I'm not very sorry, oops. Big love to all the guest reviewers I can't reply to! Also, I'll casually pretend this isn't a week(ish) late going up.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I am J.K Rowling and I do own the rights to marvel, I, J.K Rowling, do love writing silly fanfictions in a style unlike my own while I also juggle all my many charities. If the sarcasm wasn't strong enough, I own nothing.**

 **Chapter 8**

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Triskelion, Fury's Office. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:22 PM**

Fury held an air of satisfaction around him, and unseen to Hali, Natasha's mouth struggled to open into a scream but she couldn't _move_.

"How'd you get here?" Hali said, the Elder Wand finding itself in her tightly clenched fist. Hali's smile had wilted into a stunned face, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. He knew her name, or what might as well be her name – but she'd thought she was safe, Hel had told her it was safe! Why wasn't it safe?!

She exhaled shakily, thinking happy thoughts; cuddling Ginny, talking to Hel, Hogwarts, talking to Hel, her family, arguing with Hel, cats running into doors, yelling at Hel who lied to her _how dare she_ – Hali cut herself off. Maybe that wasn't working too well.

"You'd be surprised what you can do when you want to visit a friend," Fury said, in a way that made it clear he was going the vague-answers-just-to-be-rude way of doing things.

"A friend? Funny how I don't recognize you," Hali said, trying to put as much righteous-anger into her voice as a six-year-old with an oversized shirt and toy cat could.

"I'm hurt," Fury said, or, well, Not-Fury said – something gave her the idea this wasn't the director of SHIELD.

"You don't seem like the sensitive type," Hali said, and in a quick motion she slashed her wand through the air, making a volley of metal birds torpedo towards him.

But they vanished on impact, and he glowed for a moment before suddenly they were hurtling back, Fury's face twisted into something ugly. Hali ducked her own projectiles, which had doubled, quickly gasping the incantation for a shield. The birds thudded against it a split second later, Hali flinching away.

"That wasn't cool of you," Hali said, the shield (not to be confused with SHIELD) flickering around her. "Well it was really cool, and I really want to learn that trick, but you know what I mean!"

Fury-Not-Fury's mouth twitched, and something about that should've been familiar, but it wasn't, not exactly. "You know," he said, conversationally, "I've wanted to meet you for a long time, and you're not what I expected."

"What'd you expect, then?" Hali asked, her shield dying out.

"A nicer welcome," Fury said, a smirking curling his lip, looking hauntingly close to someone else – someone Hali knew. But _who_?

Hali shrugged, "Oops," she said, then changed topics. "How're you doing magic, anyway? Fury's a Muggle, even under imperio that doesn't change – or, wait, is Fury a wizard? Woah that idea seems really weird, I dunno…"

Fury chuckled – Hali thought evildoers did that a lot, they never seemed to giggle or just laugh, always a deep chuckle in the back of their throat – but didn't give a good answer, only saying:

"Oh, no, this man is very… Muggle. I'm not the one performing the magic, so what is it of care anyway?"

A spell came from him that second, and Hali squeaked, dropping Nargles as she ducked low.

"Oh, come on!" Hali yelped, "How'd'you do that?"

Fury-Not-Fury chuckled, not twitching as Hali sent a rather nasty hex at him for surprising her, and it was shot right back at her, making her roll to the side.

From behind, she felt the faintest of disturbances in the air, like someone breezing past her, and her tense body whirled around, mind quickly working things out.

"Another person in the room, then?" She asked rhetorically, "I should've known, Cornelius Fudge!" She cried dramatically, pointing a finger at Fury.

He shook his head, and she scowled – that wasn't her best guest, Fury was too…. what was the word…

Capable.

Very faint, delicate footsteps went by her, and Hali pointed her arm high.

" _Irrorogravis_ ", she said, wand lighting up and rain pouring down from the ceiling, hastily making everyone wet. It's a completely useless party trick she and Ron had stumbled across when they studied for the Second Task, but it seemed to work.

Two shimmering forms could be barely seen, rain sliding down their invisible bodies, and it was like they were made of glass, letting Hali know where they were. She quickly shot a spell at the one running towards her, the person having seen figured what her plan was. Her attacker, water dripping around them, halted right before the long business table, and their body seemed to shudder as they struggled to free themselves from the tar that appeared around their feet.

Hali darted for the other figure, sending a spell over her shoulder at the other one, a boy by the looks of it, which would hopefully make him visible. It missed, and she sent another to the unclear silhouette of Romanoff, which hit its mark and she melted into sight.

"Don't be dead!" Hali whispered anxiously when she reached her. She tried to look for signs of damage, but she seemed ok, if Hali discounted the petrificus totalus the redhead was under, and her mild case of floating.

Hali tried to perform the counter spell, but a hand yanked her arm off course, and the light red spell fired into the ceiling, dissipating. Her other arm was grabbed, and she struggled as she was dragged away from the SHIELD Agent.

Romanoff's eyes followed her, darting everywhere in an attempt to tell Hali something, but the Mistress of Death had no idea what she meant. Hali tried to free her arms, but the grip was too strong, the boy twice her size.

It was very weird getting pulled around by something she couldn't really see, and she threw all her weight backgrounds, into the person. They didn't expect that sudden change over direction, stumbling into one of the spinny-chairs around the table and falling over.

Their grip slipped, and she wrenched herself free, jumping to her feet and dodging an office chair sent a-spin. Hali, black hair shining with rain, changed tactics. The room was large and modern, which meant there was no color and not much furniture.

The bright red fire alarm was a beacon to her.

She ran, leaping over a black set of armchairs and rolling, scarcely missing the spell flying over her head.

She squeaked, chancing a look behind and seeing that all the trinkets were now soaring in the sky. They shot towards her, and she transfigured the books sent her way into handkerchiefs, wand somehow remembering things she hadn't done in ages. A mug slammed into the wall in front of her, dark brown coffee mixing with the rain coating the now slippery floor.

A table levitated to her at her wand's command, acting as a shield to block the dangerous projectiles. It worked against the books and paperweights, but then there was a scraping sound. The sound of something big sliding on the ground.

Next thing she knew, an armchair was knocking her feet out beneath her, knee's buckling. She climbed up, face scrunching up with pain. That was going to hurt the next morning, but more importantly it hurt like hell right now – which, she supposed, was a nasty way to use Hel's name.

Tony had been right, they sounded the same.

The chair had sent her closer to the wall, and to the alarm, which she jerked down. A very loud, wailing noise came from all directions, and her very body seemed to buzz with the noise.

The sprinklers in the ceiling sprayed even more water down, which meant Hali might as well have gone swimming, she was so wet. People were knocking on the door, clearing knowing where the fire alarm that'd been set off was. Concerned and downright aggressive voices argued on the other side, and someone yelled a warning they'd be coming in with guns drawn. A muffled voice asked, "Why's the floor so wet?"

Hali only had a moment to listen, since right then everyone's favorite invisible nuisance caught her unaware. He grabbed her, iron grip not letting her much movement. She bit at his arm, and he dropped her, Hali scrambling backwards to stand up. A protego blocked a curse Hali aimed for him, and she nearly groaned in frustration.

She transfigured an armchair into a red-eyed boar, who frothed in rage. The beast squealed and charged him, but the boar was transfigured into a spiked bat before it could do anything, and the dangerous weapon swung at Hali, who had to drop to the floor.

She leaped to a crouch a second later, but the next curse hit her dead center, and she felt like she was moving through something thick, the air around her compressing, and every movement took seconds to do. She tried to move her mouth, but the muscles were now sluggish, and a single syllable seemed a world away.

The Amazing Invisible Jerk was able to easily pluck her up and hold her arms down while Hali couldn't do a thing. The moment he did so, the air loosened, and she panted for air she hadn't realized she was missing.

Why was it that all the evil people knew so many wicked spells?

Her attacker reached a rippling arm up to tap their head, and the disillusionment charm faded away, revealing who was underneath it.

" _No way,_ " Hali gasped, twisting in his iron grip to look at him, disbelieving. She struggled harder, opening her mouth to say some very inappropriate things, but he waved an annoyed wand and she was gagged the next second.

"I'm going to kill you!" Hali said, but it came out more like "mm gnnnoo mmhm mmo,"

He held her arms down, plucking the Elder Wand from her hand, looking at it distastefully before pocketing it. Hali gasped, the sound muffled by the tight gag – oh no he didn't, that was a weapon of extreme power and was probably not supposed to be stolen. Hali kicked against him, but with another wand trick her hands her tied as well.

"oU MmMMM!" Hali said intelligently.

Draco Malfoy chuckled, giving a faux yawn. "You're being more inarticulate than usual, Potter,"

"MMMMMMM gHMMM MHH!" She screeched, and tried to bite him, but only succeeding on chewing her gag petulantly.

He hauled her away, and, for a moment, she made eye contact with Romanoff, who was still floating, locked in a full-body-bind curse. Hali wondered, rather absently, how many Statue of Secrecy laws she'd snapped in half by now. More would break in a minute, when the door opened and more Muggles poured in.

But she couldn't bring herself to care much, and really who would if Draco Malfoy decided to visit them across universe's – and it was her universe's Draco, it had to be, this universe's Draco was significantly smaller, with plump cheeks and missing teeth. He was disgustingly cute.

Fury tsked, "Now then young Malfoy, you mustn't damage her. I can only imagine what she'd do to me if I harmed her precious pet project."

Hali's first thought was of Lily, and her heart ached for a moment, wondering if her family had realized she was gone. She figured it would take them a while, but with any luck they wouldn't worry much. However, that didn't seem right – how did he know her mum? Who was he talking about?

Draco broke her thoughts by, rather uncarefully, shoving her around. He was sneering – Hali could tell without facing him, since spit flew out when he sneered, experience had taught her that. Then he moved a bit to the right, and the black-haired girl thought she saw a piece of tape he was standing on, like the ones people in plays used to find their spot.

She didn't get a chance to be suspicious, since the door burst open, and fully trained SHIELD Agents came in, very large guns drawn and wearing vests emblazed with SHIELD's symbol. They paused a split second upon seeing the wreck the room was in, and Hali herself was impressed they'd made that much of a mess in the four minutes she'd been in here.

It was still raining, and the agents were sloshing the water as they walked. Every throwable item – and quite a few ones that shouldn't be thrown – had been tossed around, the wall was stained brown, Natasha was floating, Fury looked downright sinister, and a teenage boy was holding a child hostage with a stick.

Which was actually _working_.

Really, what better moment for Stark to burst through and save the day, it was textbook.

Everyone in the room glanced at the door, but he wasn't there. It was a split-second thing, but even Evil-Not-Fury looked over. Then, as one, they went back to eviling, or goodguying, collectively wondering where he was.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Cupboard (Not Underneath Any Stairs). February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:26 PM**

Tony was in a bit of a pickle.

The pretty lady who'd promised to take his suit off had taken it off him, yes, but afterwards she locked him in the supply closet, which was degrading in so many ways. Mostly because he actually couldn't get out of the supply closet. He was _Iron Man_ , he was the _CEO of Stark Industries,_ he was a _genius_ , he was able to _build a suit of extremely complicated engineering in a damn cave_.

And he was stuck in a cupboard.

An alarm was going off, there was commotion outside, Hali was probably in danger, and worse yet, the SHIELD lady hadn't let him use the bathroom before sticking him inside a closet.

It was sad how he fell for the easiest trick of them all, but in his defense SHIELD was weird, for all he knew they really did have candy inside their cupboards.

Tony sighed, leaning against the narrow shelf filled with cleaning supplies and rubbing his sore shoulder, having rammed it against the door so many times it was hurting. The alarm continued to screech, and he kneaded his forehead. Whoever that lady had been, she wasn't working under SHIELD's orders, but she was mean, so she might as well be. Because he really didn't think that SHIELD would go low enough to plonk him in the nearest cupboard to get him out of the way, that was unusual, even for them.

He pressed his head to the door, not able to see anything in the pitch dark, and craving some light.

"Let." He slammed his head against the door – _THUD_. "Me." _THUD_. "Out." _THUD._

The door clicked open, and he nearly fell over, not expecting that to actually work. A janitor was staring at him, woeful blue eyes squinting in confusion.

"Wha yer doin with my cleaning things?" He grumbled, brushing past the superhero to grab his mop, and Tony didn't really have a good excuse, so he said:

"I was trapped in there with lures of candy. Anyone would've done the same."

The Janitor grumbled, waving away the excuses as he shuffled to find his mop. Tony didn't bother saying goodbye as he sprinted down the hallway, regretting having the suit taken off. He shouldn't have listened to her, but he didn't know where she'd taken it, and if it came to it he could self-destruct it so SHIEL didn't get their ratty fingers all over it.

However, he wasn't entirely useless without it – something he was very smug to admit.

As he ran, passing by numerous agents dashing here and there, he pulled a small red and gold hexagon from his suit pocket. He ran his hand over it, before tapping thrice, the piece of technology reading his fingerprint and giving a little click. It folded open and into itself, squares of metal rearranging to make the shape of a gun as he found the lobby.

He looked around for a second, spotting the elevator and sprinting over, leather shoes squeaking as he skidded to a halt in front. As he repeatedly tapped the holographic button to go up, the last shiny piece of metal found its spot, finishing the gun.

Right before the elevator started, the same lady who'd locked him in the storage slid in, narrowing missing the closing doors.

The elevator started its way to the highest floor, a glowing indicator mindlessly telling which floor they were passing through. Tony took a step away from the woman, cocking his propulsion gun.

"Fury ordered me to, so I did," she said simply, looking for a nonexistent flaw with her shiny blue nails as she spoke. Tony felt rather ruffled by her lack of interest in him, and his spectacular jailbreak. She wasn't even asking how he got out!

But Tony didn't lower the gun. "He ordered you to lock me in a supply closet?"

She shrugged daintily, now fixing her hair into a tighter ponytail. "Yes, but now there's a hostage situation in Fury's office, with Fury as the perpetrator, so that command is null,"

" _A what?_ " Tony said in a brave voice – not like he yelped it or, or anything ridiculous. A small part of his mind realized he'd been wrong, they were low enough to shoo him into a cupboard and call it a day. Jokes on them he escaped with an outside confident – kind of.

She pulled her own gun out, just as the elevator _dinged!_ and they stepped out. "Exactly, so we should hurry," and with that she ran up to a superior standing in the middle of the large hallway, relaying something or another. A dozen agents geared with weapons were ready to supply backup, serious faces and hushed conversations being exchanged, but even SHIELD subconsciously cleared a path for Iron Man as he walked out of the elevator with a path in mind.

Tony found the most intimidating, muscular woman there and asked for a quick rundown, even though every instinct was screaming at him to charge in and figure it out that way.

"Well," she started.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Fury's Office. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:31 PM**

Draco knew her enough to clamp a bracelet etched with runes around her wrist, which Hali detested. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to do, because she couldn't think clearly. Every time her mind tried to craft a way out of here, everything jumbled up, like someone rooting for toys in a toybox, and tossing all the others out as they went.

Hali frowned deeply, angrily kicking against Draco, nailing a hit on his knee. He grunted, but otherwise acted like she hadn't done anything.

"MMmgg MMGG!" She shouted, really relating to Natasha floating around not being able to do anything.

"Let her go," one of the angrier looking SHIELD agents said, and Hali also related to that. She was mad, both at herself for getting into this mess, and Draco for having the audacity to cross universes just to pester her. For a moment, she wondered how she got to a point where someone holding a wand to her neck was considered pestering, but was distracted by her annoying kidnapper pressing the wand harder, and she leaned away, trying to keep the wooden tip in sight.

Hali tried to rub the bracelet against her hip, maybe the friction would get it off, but it didn't work. Draco still had her hands tightly controlled, so the most it did was make him vaguely disgruntled. The Girl-Who-Lived might not know what it was, or what it did, but she knew she didn't like the stupid bracelet.

Maybe wandless magic would help, maybe – her thoughts scrambled, and she couldn't remember what she'd just been thinking. It felt important though, and she could feel a headache coming. If Draco had made her scar-aches, as Ginny called them, start up again she was going to – her thoughts jumbled up like clothes going through a washing machine.

The Angry Guy, as Hali liked to think of him, took a step forward, raising his gun threateningly when Draco made no move to let her go. Angry Guy's teammates practically tackled him, shushing and whispering furiously as he straightened back up, significantly wetter

It was still raining, and Hali dramatically wondered if she'd ever be dry again. Probably not, they were in this room for going onto ten minutes. Did it really take that long to handle a hostage? It was just her, and while it was bothersome, and while she was definitely taking the route of blocking out the fact that people from her old world were here, it shouldn't take that long, if she died it wouldn't matter.

But, she supposed, the negotiators didn't know that small detail.

"IM IMMOOMOO!" she said, but she didn't think any of them knew she was saying "I'm immortal!" and not "Help me!".

Turns out she didn't need to watch any more of them bartering with Fury – who was looking more an more unamused by the second – and sneakily asking questions, since Tony chose that moment to burst in.

And he was onlyfive minutes late.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **The Streets of Washington. February 17** **th** **, 2011, 1:31 PM**

The motorcycle ride went smoother than expected, because Sirius had a bright idea. It was seriously alarming that he had this moment of brilliance, and without doubt he'd be bragging for a very long time. He had duplicated the motorcycle, which they managed to steal off the sign with a confusing amount of ease. They only had to deal with a very angry old woman who could only speak some foreign language no one had ever heard of, but after dropping some galleons in her wrinkly hand she let them take it.

Mind, his duplicating skills weren't the best, but they were drivable.

Which was well more than Lily had expected.

There was a slightly manic grin on her face as she leaned over the handlebar of her bike, cars around her and the wind in her hair. She stomped down hard on the gas the second the light before her turned green, and with a squeal of tires on pavement she was in motion.

James was clutching tightly to her waist, palms sweaty and a terrified expression on his face. Lily thought he was overreacting, there was nothing to be afraid of, she was following the traffic laws! Or at least she thought so, that was the only reason Lily hadn't run the light, because the police might be a teensy bit annoying – it might even delay them for a few minutes. But she had been very young when her dad taught her about motorcycles and laws, so she'd forgotten a couple very small things: like how to tell the speed limit.

At least this way she'd be seeing Hali quicker, though not quick enough for Lily. Her stomach flopped like a pancake being flipped by a mediocre chef thinking about her precious daughter. She squeezed the handlebars enough to make Sirius's crummy work whine under her. When she finally saw her Hali, Lily was going to hug her tightly to her chest and whisper how much she loved her into her ear. In part so she can't see her snatchers being violently incinerated by the rest of their family.

Sirius was driving right beside her, recklessly swerving between cars to keep up, the two of them following James yelling directions.

"Left!" James hollered in a terrified tone.

"My left or your left?" Sirius yelled back.

"They're the same!" Remus interrupted, clutching Sirius, all of them yelling over the loud engines of the motorcycles.

Lily growled, not patient enough to handle their shenanigans, and took a sharp left turn, engine rumbling louder still.

Peter was a bit further back, having had trouble staying upright, but was quickly speeding to meet them. Lily yanked the motorcycle to take a shortcut through a large park, and even Sirius was surprised at her gall.

"Nice one, Potter!" Sirius said, his bike cresting the small grassy hill behind the Potters, bumping along the grass.

James looked surprised, briefly forgetting he was scared for his life.

"Not you, you idiot! Your wife!" Sirius said, managing to roll his eyes even as tourists screamed and ran away from the rogue motorcycles.

"Duck!" Remus squeaked, and there was something funny about a werewolf squeaking, or at least Sirius's seemed to think as he laughed, ducking down by instinct.

In front of the bikes, a large family of ducks waddled from the glittering park pond, and Lily screeched around them, kicking up dirt as she twisted around the bemused ducklings, doing a full spin before gaining traction and taking off down the bike path, cyclers fortunately having a fair warning signal to get out the way. The signal being James' high-pitched screaming.

"Not that kind of duck!" Remus told Sirius, "Like, _ducks_ ," they, two, narrowly missed the swarm of ducks.

In her rearview mirror, Lily could see Peter coming up behind them, finally getting level with Sirius and Remus.

"Turn!" James gasped, following the red string of vague directions, "Turn right turn right turn right!"

"I _am_!" Lily snapped, blood-red hair flying around her as she ditched the cycling trail and vroomed up the hill so quickly they gained air going over the other side. She merged onto the busy road just over the crest, leaving the park behind and now ahead of scheduled arrive.

There were two more thuds behind her – the rest of her family doing the same, and then meeting on either side of her as they exceeded the speed limit together, weaving between cars to get to the island they could see just ahead. With no injuries, which was itself a miracle, they finally found themselves just a huge concrete bridge away from where Hali had to be held at.

They couldn't just drive in, because there were rather scary spikes to poke out their tires on the entrance. Next to that, a stout building housed a man, who tiredly let in a sleek black car, the spikes rolling down and the car able to easily enter.

They all looked at it, Lily putting her feet down to steady her motorcycle, brushing hair away from her freckled face.

"I got this, watch," James said, and everyone looked at him. Lily blinked, confused:

"James, you're not moving."

"I'm not?" He said, and looked down at his hands, still clamped around Lily's waist. "Oh, right," he laughed nervously and carefully let go of her, looking like he was certain she was going to start driving the second he did. With caution, he stepped off the motorcycle, and jogged up to building, striking a conversation with the man. They couldn't hear what he was saying, but he gestured to his friends and made big motions with his hands.

They watched what was going on with blank looks, smiling awkwardly when the guard peered over James to look at them. Then the guard, who had a thin face and a dimply smile, waved at them, laughing and shaking his head at something James was saying.

"Is he… persuading him to let us in?" Peter whispered, aghast.

"I think so," Remus said, equally shocked. He scratched at his faded brown hair, brow furrowed. "This doesn't feel right, that's your thing, Sirius!"

Sirius grinned, but didn't deny it. "Whatever he's doing, it's working, look, here he comes now! I don't see the guard, must be telling someone to put down those spikes!"

James walked back, seeming confused by the eager faces all around.

"Well," Peter asked. "What'd you do?"

"Told him a story about how we were supposed to start our new day of work, and how our ID cards got lost in the mail even though we sent in our forums three times, and he totally thought it was true!" James said, looking quite proud. Lily, however, frowned, telling there was something twitchy about the way he said that.

"Where is he now, then?" She asked.

James looked embarrassed, running a hand through his hair as he said "I stunned him. He asked too many questions, and how was I supposed to know what a "shield" means. Completely bonkers, that one. Now let's go, I pressed the button to let us in, but I expect an alarm to go off any minute now, this place is fricking _crawling_ with cameras and security."

Like he said, the spikes eased into the ground, and, James jumping on the back and holding on tight, they sped over the bridge, the Triskelion – the guard mentioned it – looming above them.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X

 **Fun fact I spent far too long researching if SHIELD has fire alarms than I should've.**

 **Leave a review telling me about your pets – or my story, that too! Constructive criticism is always nice to hear, and I love answering any questions you have!**

 **The new chapter will be up next week! Next Friday to be precise. I've already got most of it done. Anybody have an idea who Fury really is? Or is the twist that he's been the real Fury this entire time? Find out next week onnnnnnnnn *peppy theme song plays***

 **THE CRAZY LIFE OF HALIMEDA POTTER**


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